Frozen Heart
by HikaruHitachiin1957
Summary: A curse was placed on a kingdom a long time ago that if twins were born, the eldest held dangerous power and must immediately be executed. But after the king and queen find themselves with identical twins, they can't bare to kill their son, so they decide to hide him away. Years pass and Hikaru is tired of hiding and stumbles upon a girl who will change his life forever.
1. Chapter 1

Lighting flashed through the dark clouds in the sky. Heavy rain and harsh wind hitting the kingdom of Avalon. Everyone in the kingdom did not dare to go outside. The only people that did were the brave, or if there was an emergency.

The king was pacing in the throne room. He was waiting for the doctor to arrive for his wife who was in labor in the master bedroom. She has gone into labor a week early, and of course the day she goes into labor a massive storm hits.

"I'm sure he's almost here your majesty." A guard reassured. "A bet the doctor will be here any minute."

"I really hope so." The king said as he continued to pace. He bit onto the nail of his thumb. "Hopefully he didn't get caught up in the storm. I don't know how much more my wife can take."

As the guard opened his mouth to say something else, someone knocked on the castle's main door. The king stopped pacing and he looked at the door. He heard another knock, and before the guard could open the door, the king ran up to the door and opened it himself. He smiled in relief when he saw that it was the doctor.

"You're here, thank God."

The doctor walked in the castle, letting the king take his soaked coat. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner. The storm made it very difficult to get here."

"All that matters is that you got here safely." The king said as he gave the doctor's coat to the guard.

The doctor straightened his shirt and looked at the king. "Where is she?"

"In the master bedroom, I'll lead you there."

The doctor nodded and the king led him to the top floor of the castle to the master bedroom. The king opened the door to the room and they walked in.

The queen was in the bed, panting hard as she clutched the sheets tightly. Her skin was glistening with sweat and she groaned in pain. The doctor walked up to her as the king closed the door to the room.

"I'm here your majesty, I'm sorry I took so long." He grabbed the end of the blanket. "Now let's see how far you're dilated." The doctor checked under her blanket and saw that she was fully dilated. "It's a good thing I got here when I did, the baby is coming right now."

"Huh, right now?" The king asked.

"Yes, right now." The doctor said as he laid out a couple old cloths in front of him on the bed. He knelt down in front of her. "Alright your majesty, push."

The queen screamed as she pushed as hard as she could. The doctor kept encouraging her to keep pushing and not to give up. The king stood by the door, not really knowing what to do. Hearing his wife's pain filled screams made him feel as though he was useless to help her. He would cringe and bite onto the nail of his thumb every time he heard his wife scream.

After what felt like hours, which was only a couple minutes, the king couldn't look at his wife in pain anymore. He looked away, waiting for the screams to stop, then all of a sudden, he heard a soft cry. He looked back over to his wife and the doctor and saw that the doctor was holding a baby bundled in a cloth in his arms. The doctor smiled at him.

"It's a boy."

The king ran up to the doctor and looked down at the baby. A soft smile appeared on his face, but it soon fell when he realized something.

"Wait a minute, why is his hair dark?"

The doctor looked down at the baby and noticed that the baby had dark brown hair, unlike his parents.

"That's strange." The doctor said.

Then all of a sudden they heard the queen scream in pain. They both looked back at her and saw that she was still in labor.

"Oh God." The doctor said.

He handed the baby to the king and ran back over to the queen. The king just stood there in shock as he watched his wife deliver another baby. The doctor used another cloth to clean the crying infant. He looked at the baby's hair and his eyes widened, he looked up at the king.

"It's another boy." He said. "And his hair is light brown, just like yours and your wife."

"Twins…" The king whispered, trying to process everything. "My wife and I had twins…"

"Your majesty." The doctor said as he walked up to the king. "You know that twins are forbidden in Avalon because of the curse." He looked at the baby in the king's arms. "We have to kill him."

The king's eyes widened and he held the baby close to his chest. "No I can't!"

"Your majesty, his hair is a different color than his twin brother, who has the same color as yours. You know he's the cursed twin. If we don't kill him, he'll use his powers to take over the kingdom."

"I can teach him to be good." The king said. "He won't be like one of them."

"Your majesty…"

He glared at the doctor. "I'm not going to kill my son!"

"But what is the kingdom going to think about this, after you made the law that made families born with twins have the cursed one killed. They might feel betrayed and do something that could hurt your family or the kingdom."

The king looked down at his son in his arms, then looked back at the doctor.

"Then we'll hide him."

"Huh?"

"We can keep him hidden from the kingdom in the castle. So that no one will know he was born, and we won't have to kill him."

The doctor just stood there speechless, he didn't know what to say to that.

"I...I guess...but won't that make your son feel isolated..?"

"It's the only way to keep him alive." The king said as he held his son tighter. "Because I'm not going to have my son murdered."

And that's the beginning of the story of my life, being the only alive cursed twin. Locked up in the castle where no one could see me.

* * *

Six years passed. I was on my toes, trying to look out of the castle window down at the garden as Kaoru played with another prince from a royal family.

"Why can't I play with them Naomi?" I asked.

Naomi looked over at me, she was one of our servant at the castle, but ever since I was born, her job was to look after me. She had brown hair that was in a high bun, and kind blue eyes.

She looked at me sadly. "It's because you're not fully in control of your powers, your parents don't want you to hurt anyone."

I smiled at her. "So when I get my gloves off, I can play with other kids?"

Naomi nodded. "Yah, when you get your gloves off."

"Yay." I said as I looked back out the window. "I can't wait."

Naomi just looked at me sadly, I wouldn't know until a couple years later that she was lying to spare my feelings. I had to wear gloves because they would stop sudden out burst of my powers. I could accidentally severely hurt someone. Because of powers like these, that's why cursed twins are feared and killed.

* * *

Ten years have passed and I was sitting at my desk, playing with my quill in my hand as Naomi was teaching a lesson about history. I didn't care for history, so I wasn't really paying attention.

Naomi saw that I wasn't paying attention and glared at me. "Hikaru!"

I looked up at her. "Yah?"

"You're not paying attention."

"I am…"

"Ok, then what did I just teach about."

"Um...it was about Jesus..?"

Naomi gave me a look. "I was trying to teach you about King Author."

I groaned. "Ugh I hate history, why do we have to learn about it, I'm so bored. It's not like I'm going to be king anyway, so there's no point of me learning this stuff."

I lifted up my quill with one of my powers. A couple months ago, I found out that I had another power besides fire and ice. I now had telekinesis, which is my favorite power of the three.

Naomi glared at me again. "Hikaru, you know how I feel when you use your powers during class."

I huffed and dropped the quill. "Sorry, I'm just bored. We've been doing work all day."

Naomi looked out the window and saw that it was late in the afternoon. "I guess we can end here for today, it's getting late." She closed her book. "We'll pick this up on Monday."

I nodded and got up, I left the room and began walking down the hall to the door to the throne room. I stopped to look out the window and saw that a horse drawn carriage was leaving our estate. Good, that meant I could come out of hiding. I walked into the throne room from my secret spot in the castle.

Every time we had guest over I had to hide in a small section that is called my secret spot, because it was hidden. I went up the stairs to the top floor. I began walking to my room, passing some servants along the way. The servants were forbidden to speak about me outside the castle, or they would be thrown into jail. Because my dad said if word got around about my powers, people will fear me and think I'm a monster, that's why I'm locked up in the castle.

I walked up to my room door and opened it. I walked into my room and saw Kaoru sitting at a desk.

I looked at him confused. "Kaoru?"

He sat there quietly for a bit, then he turned to face me, with a dark glare on his face.

* * *

 **Hey guys, I hope you guys enjoyed this first chapter, I didn't really like it in my opinion, but I don't really think I'm good at writing first chapters in stories. Just so you guys know, I named this kingdom Avalon because I couldn't think of a name and I litterly thought for hours and just gave up, I also really like the name. I can see how in the beginning that it could be confusing, but this story is going to be Hikaru POV, just to let you all know, I didn't know how to start these chapter in his POV, but I tried. Also I can see how you guys can kinda get a Frozen vibe in this story, but I would like to state that this movie has nothing to do with Frozen, it was about a day dream I had in yoga class last year XD I know weird. Anyway, I really hope you guy like this story, please F &R. Until next time.-HH1957**


	2. Chapter 2

His glared softened, and he smiled. "Oh, it's just you Hikaru. I thought you were one of the servants that mom and dad ordered to get me."

I closed the door to our room and walked up to him. "What are you doing up here. I thought you had to stay with mom and dad until that other royal family left."

"I was supposed to." Kaoru said as he leaned back in his chair. "But they kept asking me awkward questions and trying to push their daughter onto me. So I just said I had to use the restroom and went into our room until they left, and by seeing you up here, they're gone."

I sat down on my bed and faced him. "So was this another arrange marriage proposal?"

"No, not exactly. They just brought their daughter just in case mom and dad wanted an arranged marriage after they saw her."

I smirked. "Did mom and dad want one?"

"Nope, but that didn't stop them from trying to push their daughter onto me." Kaoru looked over to me, then smirked. He grabbed the flower that was on the desk and threw it to me. "Think fast."

I caught the glass pot before it could hit me and he ran up to sit on my bed in front of me. I looked up at him and saw the smile on his face.

"Come on." He said hopping up and down excitedly on the bed, making it bounce. "Freeze it."

"Kaoru, you know I'm not allowed to use my powers outside of my secret spot."

"Actually, you're not allowed to use them outside the castle." He grabbed my ankle and began shaking it. "Come on, please."

I sighed, then smiled at him. "Alright fine, I'll do it."

Kaoru's smile grew as I held the flower in front of me. I then slowly waved my hand around the flower, frost appearing out of my hand and onto the flower. Kaoru watched in amazement as the frost covered the flower.

When I finished it, I handed him the flower. "There you go."

He took it from me. "Thank you." He looked at the frosted flower. "Wow, I can never stop being amazed by this. I wish I had powers like yours."

I put one of my knees to my chest. "I wish I didn't."

Kaoru's smile fell and he looked back at me. "Why not, I thought you liked having your powers?"

"I do, but…" I sighed and looked away from him. "I hate that I have to hide away from everyone, not being able to leave the castle." I looked out the window. "I really want to see what life outside the castle is like."

Kaoru looked at me sadly. "It's nothing that special, you're not missing much."

I looked back over at him. "Well you've been outside that castle many times. In a couple hours you're going to be in that parade at the festival. I've never even seen what a festival looks like."

Kaoru rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, I was trying to make you feel better, but I guess it didn't work."

I smiled at him and put my hand on his knee. "Don't worry, I know what you were trying to do,"

Kaoru looked up at me and smiled as well. The door then opened and a guard walked into our room.

"Prince Kaoru, your parents have requested for you to come downstairs."

Kaoru groaned in annoyance. "Fine, tell them I'm coming."

The guard nodded and left our room. Kaoru sighed and got up from the bed, he placed the frosted flower on the desk and began straightening his shirt. I was about to lay down, when all of a sudden Kaoru grabbed my wrist and yanked me off the bed.

"You're coming with me." He said.

Before I could say anything, Kaoru began tugging me down the hall to the stairs that led to the throne room.

"Kaoru stop pulling me." I protested. "Mom and dad said they wanted you, not me."

"Well if they want me, they're going to have to have you there too."

Kaoru continued to tug me down the stairs to the first floor and into the throne room. He let go of me and walked up to mom and dad.

"You wanted to see me?"

Dad glared at him as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Where did you wonder off to when the Sato family was here? You were gone for almost an hour."

Kaoru put his hands in his pockets and shrugged, not really caring that our father was mad. "Some place where I could get away from that family, they kept pushing their daughter onto me and it was getting annoying."

"That's not how a prince should act!" Dad growled. "No matter how annoying they…"

He stopped mid-sentence when our mother put her hand on his shoulder. He looked over at her.

"Don't be too mad at him honey." Mom said. "I don't really like that family either. If Kaoru didn't walk out, I would've." She walked up behind Kaoru and put her hands on his shoulders. "And did you see how uncomfortable he was when they were trying to set him up with their daughter. My poor baby doesn't need that."

My dad just looked at her in shock. "Yuzuha, you're going to side with him."

"Well, not really. But I'm also not, not siding with him."

Dad opened his mouth to say something else, but before he could, he saw me in the back, a few feet behind Kaoru.

"Hikaru, what are you doing down here?"

"Oh, uh…" I began playing with the black gloves on my hands. I had complete control of my powers, but I liked my gloves so I kept them on. "I…"

"I brought him down here with me." Kaoru said. "I didn't want to leave him up there alone."

"Well the Sato's left, so he's safe to come out." Mom said as she walked up to me and grabbed my hand, then led me over to them.

"I still don't really understand why Hikaru has to hide whenever someone comes to visit. We can't even talk about him, we have to act as if he doesn't exist." Kaoru said

Mom and dad looked at each other for a bit, then back at us.

"Well, it's because of his powers." Mom said.

"You see, if the kingdom found out about his powers they might fear him and try to hurt him or us." Dad said. "It's for all of our safeties."

"So, that means Hikaru can't come to the parade this year again?" Kaoru asked sadly.

Mom put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry sweetie, he can't."

I looked over at Kaoru, and grabbed his hand. He looked at me with sad eyes. I just smiled at his sadly.

"Don't worry." I said as I gripped his hand. "I'll be fine."

"Alright." Kaoru said. "If you say so."

"Kaoru, you should get fitted for your suite for tonight's parade." Mom said.

Kaoru nodded. He looked over at me and I gave him a nod, then he began walking to the stairs.

"Would you like anything for the cooks to cook for you while we're gone?" Mom asked.

I just shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know, I'll tell them when it gets closer to dinner."

"Alright."

She smiled at me and cupped my face, then walked away from me with my dad. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. I then began walking to the garden. I walked through the garden, looking at all the flowers as I ran my hand across them, covering them in a light frost. Are people really afraid of a power like this? I know I have fire and telekinesis also, but...are those really powers to be afraid of. Well I guess, my most dangerous powers are fire and telekinesis, and they could really hurt people, but I don't see how ice can…

I just sighed again and began walking to the stables. When I got there, I noticed no one was in there, which I was very happy about. I walked to the third stall of the stable and grabbed the gate.

I smiled. "How are you doing Zorro?"

A black Friesian walked up to the stall gate and I began petting his head. For our fourteenth birthday, Kaoru and I got horses. Kaoru got a white Lipizzaner named Knight, while I got Zorro.

Zorro nudged my shoulder, making me laugh.

"I know you want to go for a ride, but we can't right now. Maybe tonight." I smirked a little. "I got a little plan in mind." I continued to pet his head, then smiled. "Do you want an apple?"

Zorro nickered and nodded his head in excitement. I chuckled.

"Alright, alright, I'll take that as a yes."

I used my telekinesis to get an apple from a bucket near the feeding station and brought it to me. I then frosted it in my hand and gave it to Zorro, which he happily ate from my hand.

When I first got Zorro, Kaoru and I were playing with my powers by freezing some apples, then thawing them with my fire power. After we were done we began feeding the horses the apples we didn't play with. But we must've forgotten one because we accidentally fed Zorro a frosted apple, but to our surprise he like it. Now every time I give him an apple, I frost it. I gave Zorro one last pat on the head, then I walked back to the castle.

* * *

It was later that night and mom, dad, and Kaoru were about to leave for the festival. Mom wore a lovely blue dress, with a silver tiara. While dad and Kaoru wore blue suites, Kaoru's was a bit darker.

My dad put on Kaoru's crown. He smiled. "There, now you look like a real prince." Kaoru smiled at my dad as he continued to straighten his suit and cape. "We're ready to go."

Kaoru looked over at me, who was sitting on the stairs with my head in my hand watching them, his smile fell.

"I really wish Hikaru could go. It would be a lot more fun with him there."

"Aw." Mom said as she walked over to Kaoru. She grabbed his shoulders. "I know you want to honey, your father and I do also, but you know the reason why he has to stay here."

Kaoru sighed sadly." I know."

"Hey." Mom smiled at him. "When we get back you can tell him everything about the parade."

She then kissed his forehead and walked over to my dad. Kaoru walked over to the stairs and sat next to me.

"Are you sure you'll be ok here by yourself, I can ask mom and dad if I can stay."

I chuckled. "I'll be fine, this isn't the first time I was home for a parade. Why are you so sad about leaving me on this one?"

"It's because, we just turned sixteen and it just hit me that you've never been to a parade celebrating our birthday, and I feel really bad."

"Don't be, it's not your fault why I have to stay here." I leaned back. "And besides, I don't think I'll like parades that much, with all the people. Doesn't seem that fun to me."

Kaoru was about to say something else, but our mother called him over.

"Kaoru sweetie, we're about to leave, let's go."

Kaoru sighed and I put my hand on his shoulder. He looked over at me and saw the smile on my face.

"Go have fun."

Kaoru smiled back. "I will." He stood up and began walking to mom and dad, he then faced me again. "I'll be sure to bring you something from the festival."

I gave him a nod and began waving goodbye to them. When they left the castle and the door closed, I stopped waving and my smile fell. I then stood up and walked up the stairs to the top floor to my room. I walked over to the window and watched the carriage leave our estate. When the carriage was out of sight, I grabbed a black cloak that was on my bed stand and walked out of my room. I put the cloak on as I went down the stairs. When I reached the throne room, a servant noticed me making my way to the garden.

"Where are you going you majesty?" She asked.

"I'm going out for a ride around our estate." I said. "I don't know when I'll be back."

"Ok, but don't be gone for too long, dinner is going to be ready in a couple hours."

I nodded and walked out into the garden. I put the hood of my cloak up and ran over to the stables. I grabbed Zorro's bridle and went over to his stall. Zorro saw me, but it was too dark for him to recognize me, especially with the hood of my cloak up, he began to go restless.

"Woah, woah." I said to calm him down. I pulled down my hood. "It's just me."

Zorro calmed down when he realized it was me. I put my hood back up and opened his stall gate. I put his bridle on him, then led him out of the stables. I walked him over to a log and I stepped onto it. I then mounted onto Zorro's back.

I've never been outside of the castle grounds before, but I have seen people exit out of a back gate, so that's what I was going to do. I walked over to the gate, I leaned down to unlock the gate door, holding onto Zorro's mane so I wouldn't fall off. I opened the gate and walked out of the castle grounds, then closed it.

I took a deep breath, excitement began to run through my body. I then smiled and kicked Zorro, who began to gallop into the forest.


	3. Chapter 3

I galloped through the woods, following the sound of the music from the festival. I grew more excited as the music grew louder and louder when I got closer to the festival. I gripped Zorro's mane as I kicked him to go faster. Soon I began to see lights and hear cheering.

I stopped Zorro and looked at the festival, taking in the music and lights. My smile grew.

"So this is what a festival looks like." I said, petting Zorro. "It looks awesome."

I kicked Zorro and he began walking. When I was close enough that I could see people's faces while I was still in the woods I stopped. I then hopped off Zorro, then walked up to a tree and tied him to it. I patted his neck.

"I'll be back soon boy."

Zorro snorted as if he replied and began grazing. I put up the hood of my cloak over my head and began making my way to the festival. Immediately when I stepped into the festival grounds, I was amazed by all the music, lights and people. The people were dancing and eating food that I haven't ever seen before. It didn't look as good as the food back at the castle, but it smelled good.

I took in a big breath and began walking through the crowd. I held my cloak tight around myself, afraid that someone was going to notice me. My pace was first fast, but as I realized that no one was paying attention to me, it began to slow down. I loosened the grip on my cloak as well and my nerves began to vanish.

I stopped by a poll and watched villagers dance together in one big group to a small group of people playing music. They would clap, lock arms, and spin each other around then switched partners. I continued to watch in amazement as they kept dancing, when I felt someone touch my shoulder. I jumped out of fright and turned around to see who it was. My nerves calmed down when I saw it wasn't a castle guard or anyone else I knew, but just some random villager. He held his arms out in front of him, an apologetic look in his blue eyes.

"Sorry, did I startle you?" He asked.

"Uh, a little." I replied. "I thought you were someone I knew, so it kinda frightened me."

"Well I'm really sorry about that. I just saw you standing here by yourself and I just wanted to say hi and get to know you."

"Get...to know me..?" I said surprised.

The guy nodded, a big smile on his face. "Yah, it's really great to meet new people."

I smiled at him, no one ever really wanted to get to know me, usually when we get new servants at the castle they're too scared to even come near me. But this guy came up to me, it made me feel a kind of happiness that I haven't felt in a while. He looked like a really nice guy, and around my age to. He had bright blonde medium length, his eyes were blue, and had some sort spark in them that just made you want to cheer up when he smiled. He wore similar clothing as the rest of villagers, but they looked like they were better quality.

He held out his hand for me to shake. "I'm Tamaki Suoh, what's your name?"

I grabbed his hand. "I'm Hikaru Hitach-Martinez!"

Tamaki looked at me confused. "Hikaru HitachiMartinez? I never heard that last name before."

"No, it's just Martinez, no Hitach. I just stumbled over my words, that's all."

He smiled again as he shook my hand. "So, is this your first time to Avalon's festival?"

"Uh, yah. It's actually my first time being at a festival at all."

"What?!" Tamaki screamed in shock. "You've never been to a festival?!"

I gave a slow nod and he grabbed my shoulders, he looked at me with a depressed expression, tears rolling down his face. I just looked at him confused, did I do something to hurt his feelings?

"I feel so sorry for you." He said. "You never got to experience all the fun a festival can give you. You must've had a horrible childhood."

I sweat dropped. "No, my childhood wasn't that bad. I just didn't do a lot of things like this."

He grabbed my hands and tried his best to look at me in the eyes, but my cloak was hiding them.

"I will show you, I'll make it my mission for you first time at the festival to be the best."

I just continued to stare at him and he began leading me to some place.

"Come on, let's go."

Our first stop was to his favorite food stand. It was selling some sort of food that I never seen before, like some sort of cooked meat on a stick covered in sauce. Tamaki bought two sand handed me a stick.

"Try it, this the best food at the whole festival."

I just looked at it unsure, then I looked back at him, who happily took a bite of it.

"Uh...what is it?" I asked.

He looked at me, a bit surprised that he forgot to tell me. He swallowed the food in his mouth before he replied.

"Oh sorry, it's deer, glazed over in a tangy sweet sauce." He took another bite. "It's really good, they call it a deer kabob I think."

I looked back at the meat. It smelled good...I took a small bite and began chewing. Instantly a flavor that I've never tasted before exploded in my mouth. I smiled and took a bigger bite of the kabob, within minutes I was already finished.

Tamaki chuckled. "I'm guessing that you like it." He bought two more then gave me mine, he then grabbed my free hand and began leading me somewhere else. "Come on, let's go play some games."

"Games?"

He led me to a game booth that had three bottles stacked on top of each other. Tamaki showed me how to play and told me that if I knock the bottles down with a ball I would win a prize. I think it was called the ball toss, or something like that. He handed me the ball and stood back to watch me. I took in a deep breath then looked at the bottles. I gripped the ball, then threw it, knocking down all the bottles. Tamaki looked at me in amazement.

"Wow, you've got great aim." He threw me a couple more balls. "Let's see if you can do that again."

I waited for the worker to stack the bottles, then I threw a ball, hitting them again, and again, and again. Tamaki just looked at me flabbergasted.

"Woah...you're amazing...and you said you never played this game before?"

I shook my head. "Nope, I never played this game before."

He began to tear up again and looked away. "Gosh, your childhood must've been even worse than I thought."

I sweat dropped, did I hurt his feelings again. Why does he keep on crying? The worker for the booth handed me a necklace with a gold coin with the letter A engraved into it. I just looked at it, not really impressed because the gold was obviously fake.

"Wow." Tamaki said as he looked at the necklace. "That's a really cool necklace. I always wondered what the grand prize was."

I looked over at him. "Do you want it?"

He gasped. "Really, you want to give it to me? Don't you want it?"

I shook my head and gave it to him. "Nah, I think I'll be fine."

Tamaki smiled. "Thank you, this will be the token of our friendship."

I sweat dropped again, I wouldn't mind if it would be the token of our friendship if I didn't cheat at the game. If I didn't use my telekinesis I probably wouldn't have won. He showed me to some other booths and we played some more games. Tamaki just watched as I won all the games and got all the grand prizes. I didn't really care for them, so I just gave them all to Tamaki, who gladly took them.

"So, what else is there to do at the festival?" I asked.

He looked over towards the people dancing. "Well, you can't have a good time at the Avalon festival without participating in the annual dance circle."

"Dance circle..?"

He grabbed my hand and began leading me to the dance circle.

"But I can't dance." I said.

"Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it in no time."

He dragged me to the center of the dance circle and began dancing. I just stood there staring at him, not knowing what to do. He saw that I was confused and he smiled at me.

"Just follow my lead." He said.

I nodded and began following the moves that he was doing. Then after a couple minutes I got the hang of it and began dancing with the group. I smiled as I danced, I've danced before, but not like this. When I was younger, my parents made Kaoru learn how to ballroom dance. He refused to do it unless I learned it to. So we practiced with some of the servants.

But this dancing was different, it was more fun. I switched to a couple other partners, then stopped when I got tired. Tamaki and I sat down on a bench panting.

"God." I said as I leaned back on the bench. "That was so much fun."

"Yah it was." Tamaki said, he then sighed. "Well, I need to get going."

I looked at him sadly. "You have to go?"

He nodded and saw the sad expression on my face. He smiled and grabbed my shoulder. "Don't worry, I live very close to here so we'll see each other frequently." He hugged me with one of his arms. "I'll see you later Hikaru."

I nodded and he stood up. I smiled at him. "Bye Tamaki."

I watched him disappear in the crowd. I sighed sadly, I was really sad that he had to leave so early. He was the first ever real friend that I've ever had besides Kaoru, and I'm really glad that he wants to meet up again soon. Hopefully I can sneak out of the castle. I sighed again then stood up and began to walk around the festival, to see the places Tamaki and I didn't see. The first thing I saw was a little boy at a fruit stand, trying to reach for an apple. I smiled and walked over to him.

I grabbed the apple and handed to him. "Here you go."

The little boy smiled and thanked me, then he ran away. I felt really good, it was kinda the first ever good deed I ever did for a stranger, it was a good feeling that I never felt before. I was about to walk away and go on with my night when someone grabbed onto my cloak. I looked at who grabbed my cloak and saw the vender, with an angry expression on his face.

"You better be able to pay for that." He hissed.

"Pay..?"

He grabbed my arm, his expression grew furious. "No one steals from my booth!"

"I'm sorry, I don't have any money." I said.

"Thief!" He yelled, yanking me hard that my chest landed on the front of his booth.

I looked at him terrified. "Please, i-if you let me go back home, I can get some…"

He pulled out a large knife and I tried to get out of his grip. "No please!"

I panicked and used my powers to push him back. He hit the wall, making people around us gasp and when he sat there confused I made a break for it. I ran as fast as I could away from the booth, hoping no one noticed that I used my powers. I looked behind me to see if anyone was following me, but I suddenly bumped into someone and we both fell.

I hissed in pain and grabbed my shoulder. "Ow."

"Hey, watch where you're going." Someone grumbled.

"Sorry, I didn't see you there."

I looked at them and saw that the person I hit was a girl. She had long dark brown hair that ended a little below her shoulders, her eyes were also dark brown. She wore an outfit way cheaper than Tamaki's, she wore a white shirt with black pants and shoes. She was picking up some pastries that fell when we bumped into each other.

"Here, let me help." I said.

"I'm fine." She said.

"No please, let me."

I helped her put the pastries back on the tray and helped her up.

"Thanks." She said.

"Uh, I'm Hikaru Martinez."

"Haruhi Fujioka."

I looked at the tray of pastries. "So are you a baker?"

"Somewhat." She said. "My dad owns a bakery near here, I just closed up our booth and was about to go back to the bakery to return the pastries we didn't sell." She looked down at them. "But I guess they're ruined."

"I'm really sorry about that. How about that I make it up to you by carrying them back at the bakery."

"You don't have to do that." She said.

"Please let me. If I don't I'll feel really bad."

Haruhi sighed and handed me the tray. "Alright fine."

I followed Haruhi to her father's bakery. I looked around the festival to see if anyone was following us, luckily I didn't see anyone that was, but I kept my guard up just in case. We made it to the bakery and entered it.

"Dad, I'm back." She pointed to one of the glass display cases to the right. "You can put the tray there."

I nodded and did what she said. A man, wearing a red shirt, blue pants, and an apron, with medium length brown hair came out of the back room. He looked at us and smiled.

"Welcome back Haruhi, I see that you brought a friend." He leaned on the glass display case. "I'm Ryoji, Haruhi's father. But you can call me Ranka."

"I'm Hikaru." I said.

"Well, it's nice to meet you." He said. "Would you like to have something to eat?"

"Oh, I, uh...don't have any money."

"It's alright. Haruhi's friends eat for free."

I smiled and was about to get one, when all of a sudden, the clock tower from outside began to ring. My smile fell and I looked over towards them.

"What time is it?"

Ranka listened till the bells were over. "By the sound of the twelves bells from the clock tower, it's midnight."

My eyes widened and I grew pale. "Oh crap, I have to go." I said as I ran over to the door.

"Wait, what about your pastry?" Ranka called out.

I looked back at them. "I'll get it another day. I really have to get going."

I then left the bakery. Ranka and Haruhi just stood there confused.

"Um...alright…" Ranka said.


	4. Chapter 4

I galloped through the forest, holding onto Zorro's mane tightly so I wouldn't fall off. I kicked him to go faster, trying to make it back to the castle as fast as I could. If my parents found out that I snuck out, I don't know what they would do to me.

I finally made it to the castle's the gate back gate, I leaned over and unlocked it. I walked Zorro into the castle grounds, closing on the way the way in, then galloped to the stables. I hopped off Zorro's back before he fully stopped and led him to his stall. I took off his bridle and left his stall. I locked his stall door and then threw his bridle where I always put it, then began running towards the castle.

I cursed at the castle for being so far away from the stable. After what felt like miles of running, I made it back to the castle. I flung open the door, not bothering to close it as I ran it. I made a sharp turn to the dining room, almost slipping on the marble floor. I grabbed a plate of food from a tray a servant was holding and literally fell into a chair, almost tipping it over.

I was panting so hard from running that my lungs felt like they were on fire. A servant saw that I was having trouble and handed me a glass of water, which I downed in a matter of seconds. I leaned back in my chair, holding my arms over my head, trying to regain my breath.

"Gosh...I...I wish the festival...was a lot closer…" I panted.

Right when my panting calmed down, the front door to the castle opened.

"Welcome back your majesties." A servant said.

My eyes widened and I sat all the way. I grabbed a fork and pretended to look like I was eating. Kaoru walked into the dining room and saw me sitting at the table. He smiled at me.

"There you are." He sat down couple chairs away from me. "So how was your night?"

I shrugged my shoulder, and played with the food on my plate. "Eh, it was ok. I didn't really do anything though."

Kaoru drummed his fingers on the wooden table, noticing that I was wearing something that I wasn't when they left this evening.

He cocked an eyebrow. "Why are you wearing your cloak?"

I looked at him confused. "Huh?"

He pointed to my shoulder and I looked down, noticing that I still had my black cloak on. I sweat dropped and looked back over at Kaoru. I gave him a nervous smile.

"Oh, uh...I just went for a ride around the estate and it was pretty cold, so I wore a cloak. I guess I forgot that I was wearing it."

"Did you also forget that you don't like meatloaf?"

"Huh..?"

He pointed to my plate and I looked down at it. I sweat dropped again when I noticed that there was meatloaf on the plate, a dish that Kaoru and I both despised. I guess the food that I took from the servant must've been for themselves.

"I, um…" I looked back at him. "I wanted to try it again. To see if I liked it this time."

"Oh really." Kaoru said as he smirked. He laced his fingers together and placed his head on them. "Then eat some."

"Uh...al-alright…"

I got a forkful of the meatloaf and looked at it. The smell was so awful that it made me want to gag, I gulped and looked back at Kaoru, who was smirking, waiting for me to eat it. I took a deep breath and put the meatloaf in my mouth, instantly regretting it. The bitter taste filled my mouth, making me want it spit it out. I tried chewing, seeing if it would help make the taste better, which it didn't.

"So…" He mocked. "How does it taste?"

I put a hand over my mouth and gave him a weak smile as I tried my hardest not to gag.

"I-It's not as bad as I remembered." I lied with my mouth full.

His smirk grew. "Then swallow it."

My eyes widened and I began to sweat. I tried chewing again, but it made the flavor even worse. What the hell did they put in this meatloaf anyway to make it taste so bad?! I grabbed a napkin, about ready to spit out the food in defeat, when all of a sudden…

"Kaoru." Mom called from outside the dining room.

Kaoru looked over towards the direction of her voice, and that's when I took the time to spit out the meatloaf in the napkin.

"What?" He called out to my mom.

"Did you give Hikaru his gift yet?"

"Oh crap." He whispered, then looked back to the direction of where mom's voice was coming from. "I'm giving it to him now."

He looked back at me and saw that I didn't have the meatloaf in my mouth. I just gave him a big smile. He just blinked a bit, then reached down and grabbed a bag that he brought with him.

My smile faltered a bit. "So, what's this about a gift I hear?"

Kaoru placed the bag on the table. "Because you couldn't go to the festival with us, we decided to get you a gift."

He pushed the bag over to me and I just looked at it. They never really gave gifts from the festival because was usually poor quality, so they would just get me food that they thought was good. I looked up at Kaoru, who was smiling at me.

"Open it." He said.

I did as he said and untied the rope to open the bag. When I looked inside I was amazed to see a necklace. I pulled it out of the bag and got a closer look. It had a shiny silver stone all around the rope with some turquoise stones next to some of them. But what really caught my eye was the wolf head charm, with two light blue gems where the eyes were.

I looked up at him. "This is amazing, where did you get it?"

"While at the festival, they had this gem cart that was available for the wealthy. The necklace was extremely expensive, but because we're royalty we got some for free." He smiled. "So do you like it?"

"I love it, thank you so much."

I put on the necklace and looked at the wolf charm.

"I know how much you love wolves, so I got it for you. I also got something for myself to."

He pulled out a similar wolf necklace from under his shirt, but instead of blue gems where the eyes were, there were orange gems.

"You got one to?"

He gave me a big smile. "Yah, so matter what we can be together." His smile turned slightly sad. "I know that you can't leave the castle because of your powers. But with these necklaces we can always be together."

I smiled at him. "Then I won't ever take it off."

He chuckled at I said, he was about to say something else, but before he could, our mother called him.

"Kaoru, can you come here please?"

Kaoru sighed. "I have to go." He stood up and looked over at me. "We'll finish talking later."

I smiled as I held up my pinky. "Promise?"

He smiled back and held up his pinky as well. "I promise."

We locked pinkies and he left the room.

* * *

It has been a couple days since the festival, and I haven't been able to leave the castle. I was just sitting at my desk as Naomi was teaching me another lesson in history, but I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy thinking about the festival while I looked out the window. I always wondered what the outside world was like, and now that I knew I couldn't stop thinking about it. I never had as much fun as I did that night in my entire life, which is sad to say.

"Hikaru?"

I looked over at Naomi. "Huh?"

"Are you ok? You seem more out of it today, did something happen?"

"No, nothing happened." I said as I slouched in my chair. "I'm just a bit distracted today, that's all."

"Well, I guess we can end early today." She said as she closed her book. "Your parents are leaving with your brother soon, so I guess it gives us enough time to see them off."

I looked at her confused. "Huh, they're leaving?"

"You didn't know?"

I shook my head.

"Huh." She put a finger to her chin. "I thought I told you a couple days ago, I guess not." She looked back at me as she crossed her arms. "Your parents are leaving with Kaoru over night for some royal duties outside the kingdom. They'll be back tomorrow afternoon."

"Really, is that so?"

Naomi looked at me sadly. "I know how you don't like it when your family leaves for more than a couple hours. But you understand, right?"

I nodded and looked down, pretending to be sad as I tried my hardest not to smile. "Yah, I understand."

She walked up to me and rubbed my shoulder. "Come on, I think they're about to leave, let's see them off."

I nodded again and stood up, following Naomi out of my secret spot. We saw my parents and Kaoru in the throne room, a couple servants taking their bags to the carriage. They saw me as I walked over to them.

"So where are you guys going?" I asked.

"There's a village about ten miles outside the kingdom that needs help." My dad said. "We're going down there to see if we can do anything."

I just looked at them sadly as my mom hugged me.

"Aww, don't worry sweetie, we'll be home tomorrow afternoon. So it won't be that long."

"Your majesties." A servant called from the door. "You have to get going."

"Alright." My dad said.

He patted me on the shoulder and him and my mom began walking to the carriage. Kaoru walked up to me and gave me a sad smile. He pulled his necklace from under his shirt.

"Remember, we're always together when we wear our necklaces."

I smiled back at him and took out my necklace from under my shirt as well. "Yah, I know."

We hugged each other, then Kaoru went over to the carriage. I walked outside to see my parents and Kaoru off. I waved as the carriage drove off with Naomi. When the gates closed as the carriage left the estate grounds, Naomi put her hands on her hips.

"Well, while they're gone, do you want to…"

But before she could finish I ran away. Naomi just blinked in confusion.

"Uh, ok...bye…"

I grabbed my cloak then ran over to the stables and got Zorro. I put his bridle on and hopped on his back. I made my way to the back gate and unlocked it. I pat Zorro's neck.

"Come on, let's go on another ride."

Zorro snorted as if he replied then we left the estate, closing that gate on the way out. Then I kicked him, making him gallop through the forest. I tried my best to try and find where the festival was held, but I got lost in a matter of minutes. I stopped Zorro and looked around to see if I knew where I was, but I couldn't recognize it. I guess without the music, it was a lot harder to find where it was.

I kicked Zorro and he began walking, trying to see if I could recognize anything. After what felt like a while, I found myself near a river with a waterfall. I looked at it in amazement.

"Wow." I said as I stopped Zorro. "So this is what a waterfall looks like in person. It's even more beautiful than the paintings I've seen."

I hopped off Zorro and tied him to a tree. I put my hood up then walked over to the river. I looked down at the water and was amazed at how clear it was. I could literally see the rocks at the bottom. I really wanted to reach into the water and grab a rock, but the current looked really strong and I didn't want to be accidentally swept away.

I looked to my right and noticed a trail of logs that led to a dam that was holding back some water so the river wouldn't flood.

I walked over to them and put my foot on one. They were sturdy enough that I could walk on them. I slowly began to walk on the log trail to the dam. I wasn't really afraid of falling because I could just use my telekinesis to catch myself, so the shaky logs didn't bother me.

I made it to the dam and began walking along it, staring at the nature around me. I just couldn't get over how beautiful it all was. There was a garden back at the castle, but it didn't even compare close to this. I then heard rustling in a bush. I stopped and looked at it, a slight shiver went up my spine, a feeling I never really felt before when I just stared at the bush moving. But my nerves vanished when I saw a deer walk out from behind a bush, I smiled. This was my first time seeing a deer up close, it was amazing. I just watched it as it drank from the river, trying my hardest not to startle it.

"Hey, Cinderella?" Someone shouted.

The deer got spooked by the person shouting and ran away. I grew sad by seeing the deer leave, then looked over at who shouted. My eyes widened when I saw Haruhi down at the bottom of the river, holding a couple bags in her arms.

"Haruhi?"

"What are you doing up there?" She asked. "It's dangerous."

"Uh, I was just taking in the nature, that's all...wait, did you just call me Cinderella not too long ago?"

Haruhi smiled and nodded. "Yah, because you suddenly had to leave at midnight. I'm surprised that you didn't leave a shoe for me to find you with."

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Yah, sorry about that."

"Why did you have to leave anyway?" She asked.

"Um, reasons." I said as I took a couple slow steps on the dam. "So, what are you doing out here?"

She held up the bags she was holding. "I was collecting some berries for my dad." She pointed at Zorro. "Is that your horse?"

"Yah…"

"He's really beautiful, he must've been expensive."

"I think he was, I got him for my birthday so I don't know how much he cost."

She bit her lip, feeling a bit uncomfortable before asking another question. "So um, do you mind if you can give me a ride? I would like to bring these back to my dad before sun down."

"Uh sure, let me get down first." I said.

She smiled at me. "Thanks, and hey, you can get your free pastry my dad promised you. If you have time to stay that is."

I just smiled back at her and softly laughed as I made my way down from the dam to Haruhi. I led her over to Zorro and untied him. I mounted onto him and held out my hand for Haruhi. She just looked at it, them up at me.

"Grab my hand, I'll lift you up."

She did as I said and grabbed my hand. She gave a cute squeak as I hoisted her up, she then put her arms around me tightly.

"Um, hey." She said nervously. "I, uh, never really rode a horse before. Can you go a little slow?"

I chuckled as I gripped the reins. "Alright, I will."

I then gave Zorro and small kick and he began to canter softly through the woods.


	5. Chapter 5

I galloped through the town, dodging town folk as I past them. Haruhi's grip tightened around my waist as she had her face in my cloak.

"Are we almost there?" She asked.

I smiled at her, then looked back in front of me. "Almost, it's just around the corner."

I pulled Zorro's rein, making him make a sharp turn to the right, which Haruhi responded with a cute squeak. I pulled on Zorro's reins, making him stop in front of the bakery.

I looked back at Haruhi, noticing that she was still holding onto me tightly.

"We're here." I said, the smile still on my face.

Haruhi opened her eyes, blinking a bit as she looked around at her surroundings, noticing that she was back at the bakery.

"Oh." She said as she unwrapped her arms from around my waist. "Ok…" I hopped off of Zorro and helped her down. "Thanks."

I gave her a smile and tied up Zorro to the horse station, then we both made our way into the bakery. The sweet smell of the baked goods hit my nose immediately as we walked in, some of the smells I've never smelled before.

Haruhi placed the bags on the counter. "Dad, I'm back."

Moments later Ranka came out from the back room, white flour smeared on his black apron.

He smiled. "Great, you made it just in time. I just ran out of berries." He looked over to me. "And I see you brought a friend." He leaned on the display case. "So would you like your pastry I promised you?"

"Yah, sure."

"Alright, what would you like?"

"Um…" I looked at all the pastries that were on display, seeing a lot of pastries that I've never seen before. The cooks back at the castle never cooked ones like these. "Which one do you recommend?"

Ranka put a hand to his chin in thought. "Well, I like almost everything I bake. But if I have to choose." He walked over to the side of one of the front facing cases and pulled out a slice of a cake like substance. "I'll get a raspberry cheesecake."

"Cheesecake?"

Ranka nodded as he got out a fork. "This is one of our most popular items. So I'm sure you'll like it."

He slid the plate to me, and I just stared at it with a confused look.

"What's the matter? Are you lactose intolerant?" Ranka asked.

I looked up at him. "Uh no, it's just," I looked back down at the slice of cheesecake. "I've never seen cheesecake before."

"What?!" Ranka gasped loudly, making me jump. "You've never had cheesecake before?!"

Haruhi grabbed the bag of berries and began making her way to the back. "I wouldn't be surprised. Cheesecake isn't very common around here."

"I know, but he has to have had it at another place." He looked back at me and pushed the plate closer to me. "You haven't lived until you've tried it."

I picked up the fork and looked back at the slice, a little unsure. I then cut off a bit with my fork and held it up to my mouth. I took a deep breath and then put the fork in my mouth. In a matter of seconds, flavors I've never tasted before filled my mouth, and I liked it. I looked back at the cheesecake in amazement.

"Wow, that's the best dessert I've ever tasted."

Ranka put his hands to his cheeks in excitement. "I'm so glad that you like it. I never thought my cheesecake would make a person discover their love for cheesecake!"

Haruhi walked back in from the back room and noticed her dad swaying in excitement.

She cocked an eyebrow. "Dad, what are you doing?"

Ranka ran up to her and hugged her. "Haruhi, my cheesecake made this young man discover his love for cheesecake. I'm so proud." He let go of Haruhi and looked at her. "Haruhi, I like this boy. You should keep him around."

Haruhi just rolled her eyes then grabbed a cloth and began cleaning the display cases. I finished the slice of cheesecake and the second I put my fork down, I heard the door open from behind me and multiple people walked into the bakery. Ranka's face turned angry.

"Oh great." He growled. "He's here."

I just looked at Ranka confused, wondering what he was talking about.

"Haruhi!" A familiar voice cheered. "You're finally back, we've been waiting for...Hikaru..?"

My eyes widened as the person said my name and I slowly looked behind me to see Tamaki with three other people behind him. One of the guys was near Tamaki's height, but a little shorter. He had short black hair and wore glasses over his grey eyes. He wore a black shirt and grey pants, similar material to Tamaki's clothes. The way he was staring at me made me very uncomfortable, as if he was judging me. One of the other guys next to Tamaki was really tall, probably more than six feet tall. He had short spiky black hair and grey eyes. He wore a white shirt and grey pants...and he had someone hanging on his back, it looked like a little boy. The boy had honey blonde hair and brown eyes, he wore a light brown shirt and dark brown pants, and hid half his face in the taller man's shirt as if he was shy. I wonder if that's his brother, but they don't really look alike. I looked back at Tamaki and cleared my throat as I adjusted my hood.

"Hi Tamaki."

"Wait a second." Ranka said, making me look back at him. "You know this buffoon?"

"Buffoon?" Tamaki said hurt as he crouched in a dark corner.

I sweat dropped as I looked at Tamaki, then back at Ranka. "Uh yah, we met a couple days ago at the festival. He showed me around until he had to leave."

"Hmm, I see."

Just then someone jumped onto my back and wrapped their arms around me into a hug.

"It's so great to see you again. I really thought our first encounter was going to be our last. But you're here!" Tamaki cheered.

He squeezed me, making it hard to breath and made my ribs feel like they're about to break.

"It's...It's great to see you again too." I wheezed out. "Can you...please let me go?"

Tamaki did as I said and let me go. I coughed as I tried to regain my breath. Tamaki gave an embarrassed laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Hehe sorry, I guess I got a little too excited."

"It's ok, just be a little more gentle please." I said as I rubbed my side.

"Ooh, let me introduce you to my friends. I see that you already met Haruhi, she's my lovely daughter."

"Wait what, daughter?!"

"It's just something he says, it's stupid, don't think too much of it." Haruhi said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Tamaki pointed to the guy with glasses. "That's my friend Kyouya Ootori, he may look scary but he's actually nice."

Kyouya pushed up his glasses, making the lenses have a glare that covered his eyes.

Tamaki then pointed to the tallest guy. "That's Takashi Morinozuka, but you can just call him Mori, he may look threatening, but he's one of the nicest guy you'll meet, and the person on his back is his cousin Mitsukuni Haninozuka but you can just call him Honey. Don't let his height and cute demeanor fool you. He's actually eighteen and the oldest one here."

My eyes widened and jaw dropped in shock. "He...He's the oldest..?"

Tamaki nodded. "Yep, those two are also training to be knights for Avalon, they're at the top of their class."

I just stood there in shock, not knowing how to respond. How could a person be eighteen and a knight, and look like that? Honey hopped off of Mori's back and smiled at me as he waved. I gave him a small smile and waved back.

"So, you're Hikaru?" Kyouya asked.

I stopped waving at Honey and looked over at Kyouya. "Yah."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "Tamaki's talked a lot about you. May I ask why you're hiding your face with the hood of you cloak?"

"Oh, uh…" I said as I tried to think of something. "I have a bad scar on my face that I don't want anyone to see."

"Oh, really?"

"Yah." I said as I began to rub my hands anxiously. "It's really ugly."

"Hikaru, you should know that my father runs every police force in Avalon. So if you're hiding something, you better spit it out now."

I gulped and it felt like I was starting to sweat. "I-I promise th-that I'm not hiding anything."

"Yah, sure."

"Kyouya, stop it. You're starting to scare him." Tamaki said.

"There's been rumors of a hooded criminal doing crimes in other kingdoms. I'm sorry if I want to look out for the kingdom I live in."

"I trust him Kyouya, he would never do anything like that."

Kyouya glared towards me. "Well I don't, and I won't unless he show us his face."

I gulped and began to back up as Kyouya and Tamaki continued bickering.

"Well I think that if he doesn't want to show his face because of an ugly scar, he should be allowed to do so." Tamaki argued.

"Are you really that stupid Tamaki?" Kyouya argued back. "He could be stealing from your father right from under your nose."

"He doesn't even know that my father is rich."

"Well he knows now idiot!"

I put my hands out in front of me and took a couple more steps back. "You know what guys, I-I think I'll just go if you don't mind."

They all looked over at me, Kyouya's glare hardening.

"You're not leaving until we see your face!"

I panicked and tried to run away, but I ran into a display that was behind me, making it fall on top of me and fall on the floor. I groaned as I rubbed my head.

"Damn it." I groaned in pain.

I felt something moist on my arm and saw that it was frosting from the cake that fell on me. I pushed the display of off me and wiped some cake off of me. As I was wiping the cake off me, I noticed that everyone was looking at me with shocked expressions.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Prince Kaoru..?" Kyouya whispered in surprise.

"Kaoru, where?!" I panicked as I began looking around, seeing where Kaoru was, but I didn't see him.

I looked back at everyone confused and saw that Tamaki and his friends kneeling down.

"I'm sorry that I yelled at you. I didn't know it was you." Kyouya apologized.

"We're all sorry how rudely and uncivilized we've been acting towards you Prince Kaoru." Tamaki said.

My confused expression turned shocked. I put my hand on my head and felt that my hood wasn't up.

They think I'm Kaoru...

* * *

 **Hey guys sorry for the long wait and the crappy chapter, I was going to update last week but I had performances all week and last Saturday I found out one of my friends from middle school passed away, so I didn't write for a couple days because I was feeling too sad. I'll try to update date the next chapter Friday, if I'm not too busy, please F &R. Until next time.-HH1957**


	6. Chapter 6

I just stared at them in shock as they were kneeling down in front of me, thinking that I was Kaoru. I blinked a bit as the shock began to fade and I cleared my throat.

"Um, you may stand."

Tamaki and his friends did as I said and stood up, he walked over to me and held out a hand.

"Let me help you up your majesty."

I took his hand and he helped me up to my feet. Smashed cake and frosting falling off of me. I growled in annoyance as I whipped some cake off my shirt, feeling the stickiness began to form on my skin.

I sighed. "Ranka, I'm really sorry, I didn't see…"

But my apology was cut short when Ranka began screaming. We all looked over at him, seeing him swaying with a huge smile on his face.

"Oh my God!" He screamed in excitement. "A prince loved my cheesecake! A prince loved my cheesecake!"

Haruhi just rolled her eyes as Ranka ran up and hugged her. "Yah dad, it's great."

I just sweat dropped as I watched Ranka, not really knowing how to react to him.

"Prince Kaoru, if I may ask. Why is your hair a different color? It's darker than usual." Mori said.

I looked over at him, my mind becoming blank. I didn't know the full reason why my hair was darker than Kaoru, but my parents told me it had something to do with my powers.

"I...uh...It's because, I…"

I began to grow anxious as I played with my gloves. I couldn't tell them the truth because my parents said that they might hurt me. I gulped as they stared at me, waiting for my answer. My heart was beating so hard that I could feel it in my throat.

"Did you fall into something that turned your hair dark?" Tamaki asked.

"Yes, I fell!" I said, a bit louder than intended. "I fell in a pile of coal, and all the dust turned my hair dark."

"Well if you want to get cleaned up, we have a bath upstairs. So you don't have to stand here being sticky." Haruhi offered.

"Sure, thanks."

Haruhi nodded and led me behind the counter, then led me up a spiral staircase. When we got to the top, I noticed that we were in a living room."

"So, do you live here?" I asked.

"Yah, sorry it's a mess, we've been pretty busy lately."

She led me down a narrow hallway and opened a side door, revealing a bathroom. I looked at the bathroom in shock at how small it was.

"Wow, it's really small." I said slightly surprised. "I didn't know a house could be this small."

Haruhi's eyes twitched in annoyance. "Well I'm sorry that I don't live in a castle like you. People who live in the town usually live in a house like this."

"Really? I couldn't imagine living here."

"Well it's a good thing that you live in a castle then." She walked into the bathroom and grabbed a towel before throwing at me. "Get cleaned up ok? There's a pair of my dad's clothes on the counter you can change into and I can wash your clothes when you come down."

I nodded, shocked that she threw the towel at me as she walked past me and went back down the stairs. After the shock faded, I closed the door and started the water for the bath. I began to undress as the water was filling the bath, which took quite some time. Back at the castle, it took almost about a minute for the bath to be done. I guess it's a lot different for common folk. When the bath was finally done, I turned off the water then slowly got in and lowered myself into the water.

Usually cold temperature doesn't really bother me, but I like bathing in warm water better. I tried making the water warmer by adding more water to the tub, but for some reason they didn't have any warm water, which shocked me. After a couple of more minutes of trying I growled and just gave up. I huffed in annoyance as I sat there in the slightly lukewarm water. I moved my bangs out of my face, then stared at my hand, when an idea popped into my head.

I put my hand back in the water, then used my powers to heat up the water to the temperature of my liking. When the water was perfect I began washing the cake off of me, making it dissolve into the water. I grabbed a medium size bucket that was neat the faucet and dumped it into the bath water, then lifted the bucket over my head and poured the water on me, soaking my hair in the process. I used the soap they had, which was really cheap that it immediately made my skin dry, then rinsed it off.

After I finished washing all the soap off, I put the bucket near the facet and drained the tub, then got out of the tub. I grabbed the towel Haruhi left me to dry off, then changed into the clothes she left. I looked down at the light brown shirt and brown pants in slight disgust. The scratchy material was very uncomfortable, I wonder why people wear this crappy stuff.

I just sighed and grabbed my dirty clothes, then left the bathroom and I made my way down the stairs. When I made it back down to the bakery, everyone looked over at me. Tamaki and his friends knelt down in front of me again.

"Welcome back your majesty." Tamaki said.

I sweat dropped as I saw them kneeling down. It was starting to make me uncomfortable. Do people do this to Kaoru when he's out in public?

"Uh, you guys don't have to kneel down, it's making me uncomfortable."

They did as I said and got up, Tamaki then walked over to me and knelt down on one knee in front of me.

"Would you like me to take your clothes and wash them for you?"

"Uh, sure." I handed Tamaki my dirty clothes, which he took and ran over to another room. "Be sure to wash it carefully." I called out to him. "The fabric is very expensive."

We just head metal crashing on the floor in reply, making us all sweat drop.

Kyouya sighed. "I'll go help him."

He walked into the room Tamaki disappeared to while the rest of us just stood there.

"Hey, Prince Kaoru, your hair is still dark." Haruhi said.

I looked over at her and put a hand on my hair. I forgot that I said I fell into coal, which is the reason why my hair is dark.

"I...I guess it didn't wash out." I gave her a fake smile. "I'll wash the rest out when I get home."

"I don't want you to ruin your hair."

"It's fine, don't worry about it."

Haruhi glared at me, which made me began to feel scared.

"You should wash it out of your hair now." She said in a serious tone.

"Haruhi!" Tamaki screamed as he ran out of the room and over to her. He was soaked from head to toe in water, probably from trying to wash my clothes. He grabbed her shoulders. "You don't talk to a prince like that. He could throw you in jail, or even worse he could put you to death!'

Haruhi just rolled her eyes and pinched Tamaki's hand, which he responded with a yelp and let her go.

"Prince or not he's not a better person than any of us."

"Yah, but he's a person who can hurt you." Tamaki whimpered as he rubbed his hand.

Haruhi just huffed then looked back at me. "You, head back upstairs and I'll help you get the coal dust out of your hair."

I blushed bright red. "N-No, I'm fine…"

She glared again at me and pointed to the stairs. "Now."

Her glare made me scared and I did as she said. I went up to the stairs to her living room and made my way back to her bathroom. Moments later Haruhi entered, closing the door on the way in and started the bath. I just stood there awkwardly, biting my bottom lip as I played with my shirt sleeve as I waited for the tub to fill up. When the tub was full, Haruhi turned off the water. She looked over over at me.

"Strip down." She said.

My blush came back, darker than ever before. Haruhi caught my blush and walked away from the tub.

"Don't worry, I won't look."

I sighed and when she wasn't facing me I took off my shirt and pants then got into the tub. I was glad that she put bubbles in the bath so she wouldn't...see anything. I looked down at the water and let out a small sigh.

"Alright." I said embarrassed. "I'm ready."

I head Haruhi's footsteps making their way to the tub and she knelt down next to me. I could feel her eyes looking at me.

"Wow, you even have the body of a prince to, abs and everything."

I blushed even darker, if that was even possible.

"Just wash my hair." I growled.

I heard Haruhi chuckle and she grabbed some soap. She put some in her hand, then began scrubbing my hair. She first did it pretty gently, trying to get the dark color out of my hair.

She continued scrubbing and when nothing was coming out, she began scrubbing harder. When that didn't work, she scrubbed harder and harder. It was getting really painful as her nails were digging into my scalp. I grabbed the sides of the tub, gripping them tighter as it grew more painful.

"What are you trying to do, scalp me?!" I growled in pain.

"No, I'm trying to get the coal dust out of your hair, but nothing is coming out. How did you get this much coal dust in your hair, your roots are even dark to."

"Well maybe you should stop then if nothing is coming out!"

"Well if it stays in your hair it'll ruin it."

"It won't ruin my hair, because it's my real hair color!"

Haruhi stopped what she was doing and looked down at me, seeing that I was still looking down at the water.

"What do you mean this is your real hair color Prince Kaoru? Every time I see your hair it's light brown."

I sighed as I let go of the sides of the tub and put my hands back in the water. "That's because I'm not really Kaoru."

Haruhi just looked down at me confused, not really grasping what I said. "What do you mean you're not Kaoru, you look exactly like him."

I began to grow uncomfortable as Haruhi took her hands out of my hair and grabbed the bucket.

"It's because." I started, not realizing the change of temperature of the water. "I'm his twin brother."

Haruhi gave no response, I looked up at her and saw that she had complete shock all over her face, as if she just witnesses something horrifying.

"Haruhi?"

"You-You're a twin?" She asked, her expression not changing. "And Prince Kaoru is your twin brother?"

I nodded. "Yah, that's why we both look alike. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you earlier, but I didn't plan on you guys seeing my face."

"Is your real name Hikaru then..?"

I nodded again and looked back down at the water. "Yes, no one really knows that I exist outside the castle, so that's why I used my first name. But if I used my last name, people might have gotten suspicious so I just came up with one off the top of my head."

"Oh...ok…"

Haruhi went to dump the bucket into the water, but once her hand touched the water she shrieked and jumped back. I looked over at her.

"What, what's wrong?" I asked concerned.

She pointed to the tub as she scooted closer towards the wall. "Th-The water, it's ice cold!"

I looked down at the water and noticed that a thin sheet of ice had formed on the side of the tub, making its way to me. My eyes widened in panic and I quickly heated up the water, making the ice melt. I looked back at her with a nervous smile.

"I don't know what you're talking about. The water's pretty warm to me."

Haruhi just stayed where she was for a bit, then slowly crawled her way back to the tub. She put her hand in the water, feeling that it was warm, she blushed.

"Oh, I guess it was all in my head." She said embarrassed.

I sighed in relief as she continued to wash my hair. I had complete control of of my powers yes, but sometimes when I feel a strong emotion they come out. It rarely ever happens, but of course it had to happen when I was with someone outside the castle walls.

"So, uh, if you're Prince Kaoru's twin, why haven't you been in the parades, or the other thing he does?" Haruhi asked as she poured a bucket of water over my head.

I moved my wet bangs out of my face. "It's because I'm not really into those sorts of things." I lied. "Kaoru's going to be king anyway, so there's no reason for me to go."

"But aren't you the oldest?"

"Well yah, but still…" I stopped mid-sentence after I realized what she said and I looked up at her in confusion. "Wait a minute, how did you know I was the oldest if I never told you?"

Haruhi looked at my hair, then back at my face. "Just a lucky guess."

I cocked an eyebrow at her, then she went back to washing the soap out of my hair. When she was done, she put the bucket back next to the facet and stood up.

"I'll meet you downstairs alright."

I nodded and Haruhi left the bathroom, closing the door on the way out. I got out of the tub and grabbed the towel Haruhi left. I dried off then put Ranka's cheap clothes back on then left the bathroom. As I went down the stairs, I noticed Haruhi and the others huddled in the corner, whispering to each other.

"What are you guys doing over there?" I asked as I stepped down from the last step.

Everyone stopped whispering and looked over at me, all with different expressions. Tamaki and Ranka both looked like they've seen a ghost, Haruhi had the same nervous expression as before, Kyouya looked like he was intrigued, while Honey and Mori just looked at me in shock.

I looked at them confused. "Are you guys alright?"

Tamaki cautiously made his way over to me, making the crowd get nervous.

"Tamaki, what are you doing?!" Haruhi yelled.

Tamaki held out his hand behind him, telling her to quiet down. He stopped about two feet away from me and held up his hand towards me, then poked my chest, making the crowd, except Kyouya, gasp. I cocked an eyebrow at them, then looked down at Tamaki's finger. He started poking me again, as if I was an animal that he was teasing.

I just watched as he continued poking me, my eyebrows beginning to twitch in annoyance. Soon my soft expression turned into a glare, and when he went to poke me again, I slapped his arm away. Tamaki screamed and grabbed his arm as if my slap cut off his arm or something. Everyone behind him, except Kyouya again, gasped in horror, watching Tamaki scream as if he was in pain. I just blinked, still confused at what was going on, then after about thirty second of Tamaki screaming, it died down and he looked down at his arm, seeing that it was still there.

"Huh, my hand is ok?" He said, flabbergasted.

"Of course, it is you moron, he slapped your arm, he didn't chop it off." Kyouya said as he pushed up his glasses. "He's just a normal guy like us." He rolled his eyes over to me. "Right?"

His stare made my blood go cold, it felt as if he was trying to see threw me. I gulped and gave him a nervous smile.

"Ya-Yah, I'm not hiding anything. I'm just a normal guy." I said as I rubbed the back of my neck, laughing nervously.

Tamaki looked over at me, his arm still him his hand. "So...you're not dangerous?"

I stopped laughing and looked at him confused. "Dangerous..? Why would you think I'm dangerous..?"

"Uh...nor reason…"

I just continued to look at him confused, then looked at Haruhi. "So, are my clothes ready?"

"Uh, almost." She said. "They're drying near the oven, it won't take that long."

I nodded and just stood there, an awkward silence surrounding us. I rubbed my arm uncomfortably as I looked at everyone.

Ranka cleared his throat, breaking the silence. "So, uh, would you like another pastry Prince Hikaru?"

"I don't have any money though."

"Don't worry, it's free."

"You don't have to do that just because I'm a prince." I said. "I can go back to the castle and…"

"No it's not that." Ranka interrupted me with a smile. "I told you that Haruhi's friends eat for free." He glared over at Tamaki. "Except him."

Tamaki whispered and went crouched into a dark corner like he did earlier today.

Ranka looked back at me with a smile, and started chuckling. "Royalty or not, I would still make them pay."

I smiled at him, and began laughing as well, which brightened the atmosphere to where it was before. Soon after that, Haruhi got my clothes for me and I changed into them. Ranka gave me my pastry to go in a satchel and an apple for Zorro. I untied Zorro and hopped on his back.

"Eh, Prince Hikaru." Ranka said. I looked down at him and the rest of the group. "You're welcome to come back any time you like."

I smiled at him and put the hood of my cloak up. "Thanks, I'll do that." I turned Zorro, the looked back at them. "Oh, and also, you don't have to call me Prince Hikaru. Hikaru is just fine."

After I said that, I kicked Zorro and he began to gallop away. As I was almost out of sight, Kyouya pushed up his glasses with his middle finger.

"We have to keep Hikaru's existence a secret." He said.

Everyone looked over at him, confusion on their face.

"What are you talking about, he's not dangerous like what the folktales say about twins." Tamaki said.

"Still, twins are forbidden in Avalon, if word got out that the Hitachiin's are hiding a twin, the kingdom might feel betrayed that Hikaru's fate wasn't like the other eldest twins that were born here, and the people might hurt him."

Tamaki put a hand to his chin in thought. "Yah, you're probably right. Which means we'll have to keep his identity a secret." He looked over at Kyouya. "Do you think he knows?"

"He doesn't." Kyouya stated. "I've known of Hikaru's existence ever since I was little because of my father, because of my father who helps protect the Hitachiin's, I've just never seen him before until today. The king and queen refuse to tell him, which I don't blame them for." He crossed his arms over his chest. "He must've escaped the castle grounds without his parents knowing, which means they're probably not home."

"But if he keeps leaving the castle grounds, he's going to know sooner or later." Honey added.

"You're right, but I'm hoping that it's later."

"If I may ask, if the reason people kill off the eldest twin because they have dangerous powers, why doesn't Hikaru have any?" Haruhi asked.

Kyouya didn't answer her and continued to look at the direction I rode off.

Tamaki smiled. "Maybe the curse was lifted a long time ago, it it was all just a myth."

"But he still has dark hair." Mori said, making everyone look at him.

Ranka grabbed his chin in thought. "Yah you're right. The cursed twin always has different colored hair then the rest of their family, extremely lighter or darker."

"The Hitachiin's hair is light brown, while Hikaru has dark brown hair, almost black." Mori added. "So, if the folktale is true, Hikaru is the cursed twin."

Everybody just stayed silent for a bit, not really knowing what to say after that. Tamaki then cleared his throat.

"Well after meeting Hikaru, I think that whole curse crap is fake." He put his hand out in front of him and clenched it into a fist. "Alright men, and Haruhi, it's going to be our duty to keep Hikaru existence a secret to protect him!" He raised his fist up in the air. "Are you with me?"

"Yah!" Everyone yelled as they shot their fists in the air.


	7. Chapter 7

It has been a month since I've met the group, I've snuck out of the castle a couple times the past month to meet up with them, but I couldn't stay very long because my parents and Kaoru were only gone for a couple hours.

I was laying in my bed, staring up at the ceiling, bored out of my mind. There were guests from the upper class of Avalon having a dinner party downstairs with my parents and Kaoru. I could hear the music the band was playing, which was starting to get on my nerves from how loud it was.

I sighed as I reached into a small bowl next to me on my bed and took out a piece of chocolate, putting it into my mouth. During parties like this, Kaoru would usually sneak me snacks throughout the party and stay for a bit. He didn't really like parties, he always said they were boring and he would much rather hang out with me, but because he was the future king, he had to attend. But this party was by far the worse for him because of all the girls who were trying to flirt with him, which was starting to aggravate him. They would touch him and tried to lead him places he didn't want to go, so he made up an excuse to leave and come up to our room, which was when he gave me this chocolate. But he couldn't stay for that long, despite his wishes and left after five minutes.

That was about over a half an hour ago, I kept my bowl of chocolate cold so the chocolate wouldn't melt. I raised up the book that I had in my other hand to my face, scanning the same page the seventh time this past hour. I wasn't a big fan of reading like Kaoru was, but it was something to pass the time. I put another piece of chocolate in my mouth, then turned the page to my book.

As I reached for another piece of chocolate and was about to put it in my mouth when I heard footsteps down the hallway. I thought it was Kaoru so I didn't think anything of it as I ate the chocolate, until I heard them talk.

"I think it's that room over there." A voice said outside my door, a feminine voice.

"Yah, it's the last door down the hall if I heard correctly." Another feminine voice said.

My eyes widened and I shot up from my bed and looked towards the door as the voices and foot steps grew louder.

"I wonder what he has in there?"

"Maybe some secrete he doesn't want anyone knowing about."

Well she's got that right. I hopped off my bed and quickly made my way over to the closet without making any noise. I made it into the closet just in time to, because when I closed the closet door, the door to my room opened and two girls walked in.

One girl was thin with long brown hair and brown eyes. She wore a boring lilac dress that had colorful stones around her waist and on the sheer fabric that covered upper chest and collarbone. The fabric around her chest was loose, as if the dress was made for someone with a bigger chest.

The other girl was slightly on the chubby side, and a couple inches shorter than her friend. She had long wavy blonde hair and blue eyes. Her tight fitting dress was teal with no straps that made her chest look like it was about to burst out, like the jewel belt around her waist.

"Wow!" The blonde girl squealed. My eye twitched, her voice irked me immensely, she sounded like a chipmunk on helium. "This is his room, it's so big!"

The brown haired girl looked out into the hallway, then back at her friend. "Asami, we shouldn't be in here. We're going to get in trouble."

Asami rolled her eyes. "Lighten up Erika, you need to learn how to live a little. You always have your nose in a book, guys don't like that."

Erika glared at her. "I'll have you know a lot of guys like girls who read?

The blonde rolled her eyes again. "Whatever." She then spotted my bed and squeal, running up to it. "This must be Prince Kaoru's bed."

She jumped on my bed and began rubbing her skin on my sheet and blanket, I'll have to burn those. She sighed heavenly and noticed my book next to her, she picked it up and looked at it.

"Les Miserables!" She gasped, a bright smile on her face as she hugged the book to her chest. "We both have the same favorite book!"

Erika looked at her with a cocked eyebrow. "Favorite book? But you've never read it before."

Asami sat up, my book still on her chest as she glared at Erika. "So, as long as it's Prince Kaoru's favorite book, it's mine."

Erika just shook her head and sighed when she noticed something out of the ordinary.

"Hey, why is there two beds in his room?"

Asami looked to her left and saw another bed that was made neatly, as if someone hasn't slept in it.

"Well he's a prince, he has enough money for as many beds as he wants. I wouldn't be surprised if he switched beds every day." Her eyes then traveled to the closet I was hiding in, a smirk formed on her face. "I wonder what's in his closet?"

I gasped, but quickly covered my mouth and backed away from the door until my back was against the back wall of the closet as Asami walked towards the closet.

"He must have a lot of expensive clothes."

I gulped as her hand grabbed the handle of my closet. I closed my eyes, waiting for the door to open, but before she could.

"Asami!" Erika shrieked.

"What are you two doing here?! Get out!"

That voice, I knew that voice, it was Kaoru's. I opened my eyes seeing Kaoru at our bedroom door, an angry expression on his face. Erika held up her hands terrified as she took a couple steps back.

"We-We're so sorry Prince Ka-Kaoru. We-We'll be on-on our way."

Asami ignored what Erika said and ran over to Kaoru with a big smile on her face, pushing Erika out of her way.

"Prince Kaoru, my love." She beamed as she hugged him. "I've been waiting to finally meet you."

Kaoru looked down at her in disgust and tried to get her off of him as Erika got up, looking at her friend horrified.

"Asami, what are you doing?!"

"I've already have our wedding planned out and everything." She looked up at Kaoru, holding onto him as Kaoru continued to try and pry her off. "I know that I'm not a princess, but I promise you I'll be the perfect wife and queen."

"Get off of me!"

"Asami!"

Erika pulled Asami off of Kaoru with all her force, making all three of them fall back on the floor. Asami sat up and glared down at Erika, who broke her fall.

"Erika, what the hell?!"

Erika groaned as she pushed Asami off of her and rubbed her side. Kaoru growled and propped up on his elbows as he glared at the girls.

"Get the hell out of my room, now!"

Asami looked over at Kaoru with pleading eyes. "But Prince Kaoru, we need to talk about our wedding."

Kaoru's glare hardened. "As if I would date anyone like you. You can't even fit in your dress, let alone a wedding dress."

Asami's eyes began to water. "Prince Kaoru…"

"Now get out of my room before I make a royal guard throw you!"

"You're a jerk!" Asami cried as she ran out of the room.

Erika stood up and bowed towards Kaoru. "I'm sorry Prince Kaoru. I tried stopping her, I'll leave now."

After she said that, Erika left without another word. Kaoru cursed under his breath as he got up, then closed the door. He looked around the room, trying to find where I could be.

"Hikaru, where are you?"

"I'm in here."

Kaoru looked over at the closet as I opened the door and walked out of the closet. Kaoru trotted over to me and hugged me. I was a bit shocked by his action, but then hugged him back.

"Did they see you, or find anything suspicious?" He asked in a nervous tone.

"No, they didn't see me or find anything." I reassured. "Don't worry."

Kaoru separated from me, keeping his hands on my shoulders. He smiled at me. "That's a relief." He began to chuckle. "I thought we had to throw them in the dungeon for a second." His laughter soon died down and he looked at me sadly. "I didn't want be rude to those girls, but I couldn't let them find you."

I just shrugged my shoulders. "To be honest, I don't mind at all. You should've seen what that blonde girl was doing to my bed." I smirked as I held up my hand, conjuring up a small flame of fire. "I think we're going to have to burn my sheets."

Kaoru laughed. "I don't think mom will allow you to do that, but we can wash them."

I sighed and made the flam disappear. "Fine, whatever."

We walked over to the opposite sides of my bed and began taking the covers off.

"I'll give them to the maids when I go back downstairs, hopefully they'll be done before we go to bed."

I just nodded and continued to take off the covers. When I reached over to grab the sheet, our hands touched, which made a loud shock noise. Pain shot through my hand and I quickly pulled away. Kaoru looked at me in concern.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

I put my glove covered finger in my mouth out of instinct. "Yah I'm fine, just caught me by surprise." I then took my finger out of my mouth and began shaking my hand. "Damn it, that really hurt."

"Sorry, I've been shocking a lot of people for some reason lately. But I don't ever get shocked though."

I looked over at him, still trying to get the pain out of my hand. "You never get shocked, even if you drag your feet across the carpet and touch the doorknob you won't get shocked."

Kaoru smiled as he took my sheets in his arms. "Well, I guess I'm just lucky then."

I just rolled my eyes and smiled back at him as he made his way to the door.

"The party's almost over. Mom says that we have about an hour or two left. So I'll be back soon."

I just nodded. "Alright."

He then opened the door and left, closing the door on the way out. I sighed again and made my way over to my uncovered bed and flopped down. Two more hours wouldn't be that bad, but I'm just ready for this party to be over. I grabbed my book and the bowl of chocolate that was on the floor and began doing what I was doing before those girls barged in.

* * *

It was the next morning, I was sitting at the bottom of the staircase watching as the maids and other servants were cleaning up everything from the party the night before. I watched them boredly as a couple servants walked by with my parents' cloaks, heading to the courage outside.

Kaoru and my parents were leaving for a couple hours to meet another royal family to see if we could become allies, just in case if a war broke out.

"Hikaru?"

I looked to my left and saw Kaoru standing there, a glum expression on his face. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay, I can ask mom and dad if I can stay. I doubt they really need me there."

"I'm fine." I said. "I've been home alone plenty of times before, so I'm used to it."

"I know, it's just…I thought because we couldn't spend that much time together yesterday that I could stay here and we can do stuff together. Like ride around the castle grounds like we always did when we were younger."

I smiled at him. "I would love to do that, but I really think that you should go. I don't want mom and dad to have trouble out there if they suddenly do need you. Anyway, we can do that tomorrow morning, because I have a feeling you'll be too tired tonight when you get back."

Kaoru sighed and looked down at me sadly. "Alright, if you say so." I stood up and he hugged me. "I'll be back in about four hours."

He let go of me and I gave him a quick nod before he went over to where mom and dad were waiting for him. I watched as they left the castle grounds in the carriage, waiting there long enough until I knew they were far enough away to not be able to see me when I leave.

I grabbed my cloak from the stair banister and put it on as I ran over to the stables. I had a servant saddle up Zorro for me already so I wouldn't waste my time doing it myself. I hopped onto his back and led him to the back gate, opening it. A bright smile spread across my face as I stared off into the woods. I put the hood of my cloak up, closing the gate behind me, then kicked Zorro, who began galloping into the woods.

* * *

I galloped through the village, dodging villagers and obstacles in my way. I made it to the bakery and hopped off of Zorro, tying him up to a post outside the building. I entered the bakery, hearing the chimes as I opened the door.

"We're closed!" Haruhi yelled from the back room.

"Haruhi, it's me."

Haruhi came out from the back room, surprised to see me. "Hikaru, what are you doing here?"

I smiled as I walked up to her, leaning on the display case. "My parents and brother are gone for a couple hours, so I thought it would be fun to hang out with you guys."

"Well, I'm the only one here." She said as she wiped flour off her hands on her apron. "The guys are busy doing something, so it's just me."

"I don't mind." I said, a smirk formed on my face. "You were always my favorite out of the group."

Haruhi rolled her eyes, unaffected by what I said. "Whatever, if you really must stay, you can help me bake of the pastries."

"Bake?"

"Yah, haven't you ever baked before?" I shook my head and she sighed. "Of course you haven't." She unlocked the small gate from the counter and opened it. "Come on, I'll show you."

I followed her to the back room where the kitchen was. When we first walked in there, the first thing that hit me was the smell of the baked goods, it was amazing. Cookies, brownies, cake, I could feel my mouth began to water. Haruhi got a bowl out of the cupboard and placed it on the counter next to the utensils.

"So, what would you like to bake?" She asked, looking at me.

"Um...brownies sound good I guess."

Haruhi nodded and went over to the pantry and got all the ingredients. She placed them on the counter next to the bowl then grabbed a cookbook, opening it to a page that said brownies. She got out a small bowel and passed it to me with the eggs.

"Crack two eggs into this bowl."

I looked over at her with a cocked eyebrow. "That's all?"

"Well, let's see how you do with that, then maybe we can let you do something harder."

I glared at her as I took out an egg. "I know how to crack an…" As I was about to lifted the egg up to the bowl, it dropped out of my hand, breaking on the floor. "...egg…" Haruhi crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a look. I cleared my throat and looked back at the eggs. "I'll just crack the eggs then."

"Yah, you do that." She said as she cleaned up the broken egg and then began pouring her ingredients into her bowl. "And if I were you, I would take off my gloves. You wouldn't want them to get ruined."

I nodded and did as she said, putting my gloves in my pocket. I cracked the eggs into the bowl and handed it to Haruhi, who put it into her bowl with the other ingredients. I watched her as she stirred the mixture, seeing all the different colors turn into one chocolatey brown one, which looked really delicious to me. I couldn't wait to see it when it's baked.

Haruhi handed me the bowl and spoon. "Continue mixing this while I'll see if any of the ovens are ready."

"Ok." I said and tried to stir the batter the same way she did, but it was a lot harder than it looked.

"No, like this."

She grabbed my hand and began showing me how to properly stir the mix, I soon caught on what to do.

"You got it?"

"Yah, I do…" I looked over at her and saw that our faces were only a couple centimeters apart.

I've never been this close to anyone before, let alone a girl. We were looking in each other's eyes, everything else in the world seemed like it didn't matter. My heart began beating hard in my chest, and my stomach began to feel funny...was I getting sick? We stared at each other for a couple more seconds then Haruhi blinked a bit, breaking out of her trance. A blush formed on her face and she let go of me then backed away from me.

"I-I'm going to check o-on the ovens!"

I looked at her confused as she walked away, what was that about? And why was my heart and stomach feeling weird? I just shrugged off the feeling and went back to stirring the batter. About a minute later, Haruhi returned to me, the blush still slightly on her face and she wouldn't look at me. She pulled out a pan and placed it on the counter.

"We now have to put the batter in the pan. Then we can bake it."

I nodded, handing her the bowl and she began pouring it into the pan. I watched her as she scraped off all the leftover batter out of the bowl. She then grabbed the pan and handed it to me.

"We now have to put it in the oven."

I nodded and followed Haruhi over to the ovens. The smell from a couple of the ovens smelled heavenly. I didn't know what they were baking, but I really wanted to try it. She led me to an empty oven and opened the door. Instantly the heat hit me, I didn't know an oven could produce that much heat. Haruhi looked over at me and held out her hands.

"Alright, hand me the pan."

I looked at the pan, then back at Haruhi. "I could do it, it doesn't look that hard."

"The oven is really hot Hikaru, you'll get burned if you're not careful."

I smirked at her as I walked up to the oven. "I highly doubt that."

I never got burned before because of my powers, so if I wanted to I could reach into a fire pit and grab a red hot coal without getting burned. Which could be very useful if I dropped something in the fire pit back at home, which has happened a couple time actually.

I placed the pan into the oven without care and closed the door to it. I looked over at her, the smirk still on my face.

"See, I didn't get burned."

Haruhi rolled her eyes and walked over to an hour glass. "Wow, you're so amazing. Teach me your ways." I frowned when I caught her sarcasm. She chuckled when she caught my expression and grabbed the hour glass. "I'm sorry if I offended you. It might be a great accomplishment that you did because you're a prince, but for us villagers it's not."

I huffed, blowing a piece of my bangs out of my face as I crossed my arms over my chest. "Yah, whatever."

Haruhi flipped the hour glass and placed it back in the counter. "Alright, now we just have to wait a half an hour till they're done."

I gave her a nod and leaned on the counter as I watched Haruhi take out finished pastries from another oven and placed them in the counter next to me. I didn't know what type of pastry it was, but it looked delicious.

"What's that?" I asked as I pointed to the light brown puffy pastry.

"It's a Chelsea bun." Haruhi answered as she tossed the thick cloths she used to grab the tray carelessly on the counter. "They're my dad's favorite, especially when he's sad. So I'm making him a couple batches for him on Friday."

"Why would he be sad on Friday?"

Haruhi's expression turned solemn as she began lazily glazing the Chelsea buns. "Is because...it's the eleventh anniversary of my mother's death."

My expression turned sad and I looked away, feeling bad for asking. "Oh, I'm sorry…"

Haruhi just gave me a small nod and began placing the buns onto a plate. I just stood there, an awkward silence surrounding us. I bit my lip, trying to think of something to say to break the awkward silence, but nothing came into mind.

"She was sick…"

I broke out of my thought and looked at Haruhi. "Huh?"

"My mother, she was really sick." She said, looking down at the counter. Her fists were balled up, trying to hold back her emotions. "My dad tried everything to get her help, the doctors in the village didn't know what was wrong with her, and soon after that...she passed away…I was five at the time, and I didn't know what was going on. I kept asking my dad when Mom wasn't coming back because I didn't understand what was going on until her funeral...where I finally understood why she wasn't coming home…"

Her voice cracked and she covered her mouth with her hand as she finally let her tears fell. I watched her sadly as she cried. I didn't know how to comfort someone, I've never really had to do it before. But then I remember led of what my parents and Kaoru did when I was sad. I walked over to Haruhi and immediately wrapped my arms around her in a hug.

She was shocked by my sudden action, but then she hugged me back, crying into my chest. I put my nose in her hair, feeling my own eyes water up. Over never been in a situation like her's, but just watching her cry made me feel a kind of pain I've never felt before. We stayed in that position for a while, just hugging each other until she pulled away from me. She cleared her throat and wiped a couple tears from her eyes.

"Um, I better finish putting the Chelsea buns away before they get cold."

I nodded and she continued what she was doing before. For the rest of the time we were silent, not really knowing what to say after that. Soon the hour was empty and I hopped off the counter I was sitting on. I looked over at Haruhi, who was decorating a cake.

"Haruhi, the brownies are ready."

"Can you get that for me?" She asked, not looking at me. "I'm kinda busy."

"Alright." I said as I walked over to the oven. I opened the door, a rush of heat hitting me as I reached in and grabbed the pan.

"What are you doing?!l Haruhi screamed as I stood up.

I looked at her, confused at why she was yelling at me as she ran up. "What's wrong?"

Haruhi grabbed two clothes and snatched the pan away from me and put it on the counter. She looked back at me in concern.

"Let me see your hand." I showed her my hand and she grabbed it. But when she examined my palm, her concerned expression turned confused. "How is the possible..?"

"What?" I asked.

"How are you not burned, you touched a extremely hot pan and you didn't get a blister." She looked up at me. "How is that possible?"

I sweat dropped, I forgot that regular people can't hold hot stuff without getting hurt. I cleared my throat and took my hand back.

"I must've not been holding it for that long, that's why I didn't get hurt." I put my hands in my pockets and gave her an embarrassed smile. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking."

"Just be more careful next time alright?"

I nodded and Haruhi went back over to the pan of brownies. I watched her as she began cutting them into squares with a knife, the gooeyness of the chocolate made my mouth water, and the smell was amazing.

"Try it." She said as she handed me the first piece.

I took the brownie square from her and bit into it. Immediately the warm chocolatey flavors filled my mouth. I've never had a brownie like this before, and I helped make it.

"So, what do you think?" Haruhi asked.

"It's amazing." I said as I finished the brownie. "The chiefs back at the castle's brownies aren't even that good."

"Wow, I better wrap up the rest for you then." She chuckled.

Haruhi cut up the rest of the brownies and put them into a bag for me. She then typed up the bag with a string and handed it to me. I thanked her and she led me outside to Zorro, who she gave an apple to.

I smiled at her. "I had a really great time hanging out with you. Baking was a lot more fun than I thought it would be."

She smiled back at me. "Well, if you do it with the right person, anything can be fun."

"Yah, it can." I stared into her eyes for a bit, my heart starting to beat fast again and the strange feeling came back into my stomach. I didn't know why my stomach or heart was doing that, but for some reason it felt...a little nice. I cleared my throats and looked away from her as I put my hood up. "Well I better get going before my parents get back. I'll see you later."

Haruhi nodded and as I was about to turn away, Zorro head butted me in the back, making me fall onto Haruhi.

I hissed in pain as I got up on my hands. "Sorry, he sometimes likes to head butt people."

When I opened my eyes they immediately grew wide and a dark blush covered my face. My chest started beating even harder than before, and the feeling in my stomach made me want to puke. I don't know why but every time I looked at her today I felt weird...but why? Was she the reason why I was feeling like this, did she get me sick?

I didn't like feeling this way and wanted to get away from her, but yet...I wanted to stay close to her. For some reason the only thing I could focus on was her lips and nothing else. They looked so soft...and pretty. I didn't know lips could be pretty, but hers were. I just wanted to feel her lips on mine…

I started subconsciously moving my lips closer to hers slowly, until she said something…

"Um, can you get off, you're kinda heavy."

I snapped out of my thought and my eyes grew wide again. I quickly got off of her as fast as I could, the blush darkening on my face as I covered my mouth with my hand. What was I just trying to do right now?!

I quickly got up and stumbled over to Zorro, who looked like he was enjoying himself too much. I mounted him and turned him to leave.

"Th-Thanks again." I stuttered. "I-I'll see you la-later."

I then kicked Zorro and he galloped away from the bakery as fast as he could. Haruhi just stood there confused, a slight blush still on her face.

"Well...that was weird."

She then went back into the bakery, locking the front door so no one else could get in that night.

* * *

 **Hey guys I hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry it took a while to update, but I had to update my other story _Asylum_ (which by the way if you if you read it I updated it last week, but there was something wrong with the notifications so no one got notified so if you read that story it's updated.)**

 **Also I wanted to let you guys know that I'm starting a new story and its going to be my first ever rated M story. It's going to be called _Coroner_ so I hope you guys well check that out when I upload the first chapter, which will hopefully be this weekend. Anyway, thank you again for reading this chapter, I'll try to update again soon, please F &R. Until next time.-HH1957**


	8. Chapter 8

I was sitting on my bed staring at my blanket. My hand gripping the fabric on my chest, still feeling my pounding heartbeat. My face was still flushed and my stomach still had this weird queasy feeling. I've never felt this way before, was it some type of sickness? I started feeling this way when I went over to Haruhi's. Did something in her house get me sick, or were the brownies we made bad? It couldn't have been the brownies because I started feeling this way before I ate one.

I looked over at the bag of brownies that were on a drawer next to my bed. I grabbed them and opened the bag, taking in the sweet smell. I took out one of the brownies and looked at it, feeling that weird feeling in my stomach intensify. Before I could take a bite of it, my door began to open. I quickly put the brownie back in the bag then hid them underneath my pillow.

"Hikaru?" Kaoru said as he opened the door. When he saw me he smiled. "There you are, I've been looking for you everywhere."

"I've just been up here, yah nowhere else. Cause that'll be weird." I said in a fast tone, then laughed nervously at the end.

Kaoru looked at me confused as he closed the door. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing's wrong, I don't know what you're talking about. You're the weird one here!"

"Alright…" Kaoru said as he made his way over to me and sat down on my bed. He put his hand on top of mine and looked at me. "I know something's up, what's wrong?"

"It's just…" I sighed. "I've been feeling a bit weird lately and I've never felt this way before. I don't know if I'm getting sick or not, but I've never had these symptoms before."

"What kind of symptoms are you having?"

"Well." I said as I put my hand on my chest. "My chest feels like it's tightening and there's this weird feeling in my stomach as if I ate like live butterflies or something."

Kaoru cocked an eyebrow. "Are you feeling these symptoms when you look at someone, particularly female?"

"Well, yah I guess…" Kaoru smirked at me, which I cocked an eyebrow to. "What's with that face?"

"Hikaru I don't think you're sick." I blinked in confusion as he leaned closer. "I think you're in love."

My blush turned my whole face red. "Wh-What?!" I stuttered. "Me, in love?!"

Kaoru's smirk grew as he leaned in closer to me. "So who's the girl? Is she some young maid here in the castle, or some girl you saw at the dinner party last night?"

"Wh-Who said that I'm in love?! I'm just...I'm just not feeling well, that's all."

Kaoru leaned away from me, the smirk still on his face. "Well I think I got something for you." He got up and headed towards the door. "Follow me."

I got up from my bed and followed Kaoru down the hall. "Kaoru, where are you taking me?"

"It's a surprise."

I huffed as he led me down the stairs and into another hallway. I haven't been down his hall in a while. Pictures of our family were displayed throughout the hallway...but none with me though. I understood why, but it would've been nice if I was in at least one.

Kaoru stopped at a door and grabbed the door knob. "Here we are."

He opened the door and we walked into the room, immediately my expression fell.

"The library, really?"

"I know that you're not really a big fan of books." He said as he walked over to one of the bookshelves. "But I think I know what can help you. Ah," He pulled out a big old brown book. "And here it is." He walked over to me and handed the book to me. "Read chapter sixteen." He patted my shoulder and made his way out of the library. "It'll help you with your little problem."

I watched as Kaoru left the library. I huffed, blowing a piece of my bangs out of my face as I made my way over to a table. I opened the book and began flipping through the pages.

"Chapter sixteen, chapter sixteen." When I found the chapter, and read the title I huffed in annoyance. "Of course, _"How to tell if you're in love."_ I grumbled as I began reading. "The symptoms. One, your chest hurts when you think about the person. Two, If the person is happy then you're happy." I cocked an eyebrow as I turned the page. "Three, when you're around them, you get this weird feeling in your stomach. Four, you distinguish their voice better than other people's." I turned another page. I felt like this was all stupid, but yet I couldn't stop reading it. "Five, you get jealous when this person is around others. Six, you can't imagine living your life without them…" I growled and slammed the book shut. "This is stupid."

I got up and began making my way to the door, but stopped. I looked back at where I left the book, biting my bottom lip. I then huffed and walked back to the table, grabbed the book and left the library.

* * *

It was the next day and for the first time in quite a while we were eating breakfast as family. I put a pancake on my plate and drowned it in syrup before eating it. I wasn't a big fan of pancakes, but it was a nice change from what I usually did, I would just usually eat leftovers from dinner and eat them in my room.

It was nice to eat as a family when my parents weren't busy, which was very rare. My dad patted his mouth with his napkin and looked at us.

"So let's talk about our plans for today." Kaoru and I looked over at him as he continued. "That family we met yesterday would like to meet us again for dinner at their castle so we can continue our discussion from yesterday."

"Do I have to go?" Kaoru asked.

"Yes." Kaoru groaned as he poked his pancake with his fork. "It's a family dinner, so the king and queen's daughters are going to be there as well."

Mom giggled as she wiped her mouth with her napkin. "Their twin daughters are very excited to meet you Kaoru."

"Wait twin daughters?" I asked. "They have twins as well?"

Mom nodded. "Yes, they're identical too. They're really beautiful girls." She giggled again. "I wouldn't mind if we had Kaoru be arranged to marry one of them. They would make beautiful babies."

"Mom!"

"Oh I'm just joking with you sweetie, but I still really don't mind if you married one of them."

Kaoru rolled his eyes and went back to poking at his pancake, a slight blush on his face.

"So when are you guys leaving?" I asked.

"Right after we're done here." Dad said as he took a sip of his drink. "The servants are packing our things in the carriage as we speak."

"How long well we be gone?" Kaoru grumbled, not looking up from his pancake.

"For about a day and a half." Mom replied, making Kaoru groan and slam his head on the table, but mom just ignored him. She looked over at me. "They're showing us around their kingdom before we leave so that's why we're staying overnight."

"Oh, ok" I said.

Mom looked at me sadly. "I know we've been really busy lately sweetie, but we're doing this for the kingdom." She put her hand on top of mine. "You know that right?"

I nodded. "Yah, I know."

For the rest of the time we ate in silence. I was use to my parents telling me last minute that they have to travel somewhere. When we were younger, Kaoru would stay home with me because he was too young to travel long distances. But now that he's older he has to go with them on almost every trip, which Kaoru hated, and if I had to be honest, I hated too. But because he was future king he had to go.

I took one last bite of my pancake and handed my empty plate to a servant. I then watched my parents and Kaoru leave the castle grounds. I leaned on the door frame, watching the gates close as I thought about leaving. I wanted to see Haruhi, I really did, but after what happened with us yesterday, I felt a little hesitant to go. But for some reason I just really wanted to see her. I stood there for a bit longer, still contemplating if I should go.

"Screw it." I said as I walked over to the banister to grab my cloak. I looked over at a male servant as I put it on. "Saddle up Zorro for me."

The servant bowed. "Yes your majesty."

I finished clipping my cloak on and made my way over to the stables. When I got there one of the stable hands just finished tacking up Zorro and handed me the reins.

"Here you go your majesty."

I took the reins and thanked him before walking out of the stables. I mounted on Zorro and led him to the gate. I looked around the grounds to see if anyone would notice me, but the people who were outside were the stable hand and the gardeners, and they were too focused on their work to notice me.

I leaned down and unlocked the gate before opening it. My heart pounding as I put my hood up, staring off into the direction of the village. I took a deep breath, trying to calm down my heat before closing the gate, and galloping through the woods towards the village.

* * *

I hopped off of Zorro's back and tired him up to a post before entering the bakery. When I entered I saw Ranks behind the counter writing something down on a piece of paper. He looked up when he heard the chimes from the door and smiled when he saw it was me.

"Hikaru, it's great to see you again. Haruhi and the gang are in the back."

I began to feel a weird burning feeling in my chest after he said Haruhi and the gang. To be honest I just wanted to be alone with Haruhi like last night. I really didn't want the other guys to be around bothering her...wait a minute…

 _Five, you get jealous when this person is around others…_

Could it be..? No, it couldn't. I just shook off the thought, thanked Ranka and made my way to the back where Haruhi and the group was. When they saw me, Tamaki smiled and ran over and hugged me.

"Hikaru, it's so great to see you!" He beamed.

I growled and tried to push him off of me. "It's great to see you too."

He hugged me tighter, making me even angrier as I tried to get out of his grip more.

Kyouya pushed up his glasses. "Tamaki, I think you've hugged him long enough. He's getting uncomfortable."

Tamaki let go of me and gave me an embarrassed smile. "Sorry, it's been awhile since I've seen you since I've been so busy lately."

"It's alright." I said as I rubbed my arms.

I looked over at Haruhi and smiled at her when our eyes met. She blushed slightly and looked away, but then rolled her eyes to look back at me and gave me a small smile. Her smile gave me a weird feeling in my stomach, but this one was a good feeling.

 _Three, when you're around them, you get this weird feeling in your stomach._

My smile fell and I looked away from her. I still must not be feeling well, that's why my stomach is acting weird.

"You made it here just in time Hikaru, we're talking about what we're going to do for Haruhi's birthday."

I looked back over at them. "When's her birthday?"

"In about three days, on the fourth."

Haruhi rolled her eyes and huffed. "You guys, I don't really care about a birthday party. I'm just fine doing nothing."

"No, no Haruhi." Tamaki said. "You're turning seventeen in a couple days, we have to celebrate."

"But you guys…"

The rest of the group ignored her as they continued talking about the party she didn't want. But even though everyone else was talking over her, I could still hear her clearly.

"Guys please, I really don't want to have a party. Guys!"

 _Four, you distinguish their voice better than other people's_

"Guys, guys!" I said, making everyone go quiet. "I get that you want to celebrate Haruhi's birthday, but if she doesn't want a party, she doesn't want one."

"Aww, you're a party pooper. But if she doesn't really want one I guess we can do something else." Tamaki said.

"Does that mean no cake?" Honey asked.

"No Honey, there will be cake." Haruhi said. She then looked over at me and smiled. "Thanks Hikaru."

I smiled back at her, but it soon fell.

 _Five, if the person is happy, then you're happy as well._

No, no it can't be. I can't be in love with her. I looked up at her, she was talking to Kyouya. If I'm in love with her I could see her with me in the future right? I closed my eyes and immediately a picture of us together appeared in my mind of us holding hands and cuddling while watching the sunset on a hill. We looked at each other and I put my hand on her cheek as we began to lean in for a kiss, but before our lips could touch my eyes snapped open. I put a hand to my chest and felt my heart pounding hard in my chest that it was almost painful.

 _One, your chest hurts when you think of that person._

 _Six, you can't imagine living your life without them._

Oh my god….I looked over at Haruhi, a slight blush covering my face.

Kaoru was right...I'm in love with Haruhi.


	9. Chapter 9

I was sitting in a chair, looking down at my hands. It had only been an hour since I realized my true feelings for Haruhi. I just couldn't understand how I could be in love with her, I only met her about a month ago, but yet it feels like I know so much about her. I touched my palm and looked at my glove. But what would she think of my powers? Mom and dad said that if someone found out about my powers that they might be afraid or try to hurt me.

The sound of laughter broke me out of my thought, I looked up and saw Haruhi and Tamaki in the kitchen together. Haruhi was making some pastries for tonight to sell while she talked to him as he watched. A burning sensation began to form in my chest, was this jealousy? I felt it before when Kaoru was allowed to do certain things that I couldn't. But this was different, this was more intense, almost like there was a fire in my chest.

What made the burning sensation grow even more was when I noticed the look Tamaki was giving Haruhi, he was looking at her with a loving gaze. I clenched my jaw and looked at him with a jealous glare, feeling the burning in my chest grow even more. When the burning sensation got too much for me, I got up and made my way over to the kitchen. As Tamaki was about to start another conversation with her, I jumped in between them and leaned on the counter as I looked over at her.

"So Haruhi, what are you making?" I asked, giving Tamaki a small side glare, which he responded with a confused expression.

"Oh, uh...I'm making some more tarts. My dad ate a lot of them last night without realizing how many he ate."

"Would you like some help? I'd be really happy to help, especially after how fun we had last time." I purred.

Haruhi blushed and looked away from me. "Um, Tamaki already offered, but if you really want to help too, I guess you can help as well."

I frowned when I heard about Tamaki helping her as well, but working alongside with him, I could show Haruhi that I'm way better than him. My frown turned into a smirk at the thought.

Haruhi grabbed two bowls and placed them in front of us. "Just stir the batter until it's all mixed."

We both grabbed the wooden spoon that was in the bowl and started mixing the batter. I rolled my eyes over at Tamaki and glared at him again. He must've felt my glare because he looked over at me. I glared harder at him and he just looked at me confused again. I looked down at his bowl then back at him. He looked at his bowl confused then back at me, then as is something clicked in his mind as he realized what I was doing, he glared. He then began mixing the batter in his bowl faster as so did I. We were competing against each other to see who could finish first to impress Haruhi.

As we began to mix faster, where that batter was beginning to fall out of the bowl, Haruhi noticed what was happening between us and panicked.

"Stop!"

We both stopped our competition with each other and Haruhi ran over to us and took away the bowls.

"You guys are going to ruin the batter!" She put the bowls on the counter and glared at us. "What were you two doing?!"

We both sweat dropped at her glare.

"To be honest...I'm not really sure." Tamaki nervously laughed as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Haruhi turned he glare towards me and I gulped.

"I…" I looked away from her as a blush began to spread across my face. "I wanted to have a competition to see who would finish first...so I could impress you…"

Haruhi's glare fell when she heard me say that and another small blush formed on her face. She handed the bowls back to us.

"If you want to impress me, m-mix the batter properly, alright?"

I nodded and Haruhi walked away from us. Tamaki and I went back to mixing the batter, he looked over at me with a smile.

"So...you like Haruhi?"

My blush spread across my whole face and I looked over at him. "Wh-What?! No! What makes you think that?"

Tamaki chuckled softly. "You don't have to deny it, feelings are feelings. Everybody's got them."

"So, you're not mad?"

Tamaki stopped mixing and looked at me in shock. "Wait, so you thought...Was that the reason why you wanted to compete with me, because you thought I liked her?"

I nodded and Tamaki began to laughed. I glared at him and turned away embarrassed.

"It's not that funny." I growled.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Tamaki apologized as his laughter died down. He looked over at me with a smile. "Well to tell you the truth, I did love Haruhi, and I still technically do. But we dated for a brief amount of time and it didn't really work out, so we broke up."

"Wait, you and Haruhi dated?" Tamaki nodded. "So is that the reason why Ranka doesn't like you?"

He sweat dropped. "Well no, not really. I can tell you that story another time. It's a really long story."

"May I ask why you two broke up?"

Tamaki sighed and looked back down at his bowl. "I guess she just fell out of love with me. She told me that she loved me as a friend more than a lover, and I told her I respected her thought and we decided to break up." He looked over at me with a sad smile. "And I'll be honest with you, it hurt. For a while I couldn't even face her because I was too sad and every time I looked at her I was reminded of all the happy memories we had together. But I soon realized that I was miserable without her. So, I decided that if I couldn't be with her as a boyfriend, I'll be with her as a friend."

"So, you won't mind if...if we dated?" I asked, the blush still on my face.

"No, not really. I might first be a little hurt because I do still love her a bit. But I would mostly be happy cause I know that you're a really great guy, and she'll be safe in your hands."

I smiled at him and we finished with the batter and went over to Haruhi so we could continue baking with her.

* * *

It was the next day, my parents and Kaoru weren't coming back home until late tonight, so I had enough time to hang out with everyone again.

I hopped off Zorro and tied him up to the post before entering the bakery. When I entered the chimes rang and Tamaki's head popped out from the curtains. When he saw me, he smiled and made his way over to me.

"Hikaru, great you're here. We're about ready to go for Haruhi's birthday picnic."

"Wait, birthday picnic? Didn't Haruhi say she didn't want to do anything for her birthday?"

"No, she said she didn't want a party." He corrected. "A picnic isn't a party."

I cocked an eyebrow at him. "Are you sure she's going to be ok with this?"

"Of course she well." He laughed, trying to hide the hint of nervousness that was in it. "...Hopefully."

I just gave him a deadpan look before Tamaki began dragging me to the kitchen.

"Come on, let's hurry up before Haruhi comes down from her break."

When we passed the curtains, I saw the rest of the group, putting food and blankets into a basket.

"So, where are we going for the picnic?" I asked.

"We're going to the grotto that's not that far from here. It's the perfect place for her birthday picnic."

"What's a grotto?"

Tamaki gasped and looked at me horrified. "You don't know what a grotto is?!" I shook my head and Tamaki grabbed my shoulders and looked at me sadly. "What else have they been keeping from you in that castle?" I just looked at him confused as he stood up straight. "A grotto is a cave near water that if you travel deep enough you'll find clear blue water deep enough for us to swim in."

"That actually sounds like a lot of fun." I smiled.

"I know, this is going to her best birthday yet." He squealed, he then calmed back down and smiled at me. "Speaking of her birthday, what did you get her?"

"Huh?"

"Her present, what did you get her?"

I sweat dropped, I didn't know that we were celebrating her birthday today, so I didn't get her anything."

I rubbed the back of my neck embarrassed. "I...I didn't get her anything."

"What?!" I jumped at his outburst. He leaned close to me so I could only hear him. "How are you going to impress Haruhi if you didn't get her anything?" I shrugged my shoulders. "Don't you have anything to give?"

I cup my chin in thought. "Um, I maybe have something in my saddle bag."

His worried expression was replaced with a smile. "Great, you go check while we finish up."

I nodded and walked past the curtains then out of the bakery. I walked over to Zorro and opened my saddle bag before rummaging through it. I grumbled when the only thing I found useful was a small sack full of gold coins that I kept in my bag just in case I needed to buy something.

"Great." I huffed as I took the sack out, glaring at it. "What am I going to do now?"

Then out of the corner of my eye I noticed a couple stands selling some stuff. I looked at the sack of coins then back at the stands, a light bulb lit up in my head.

I smiled. "If I can't give her anything of mine, I can just buy her something."

I closed my saddle bag and tied the sack of coins to my pants before making my way over to the stands. I readjusted my hood so it covered my face more and scanned the stands to see if there was anything that Haruhi would like. A lot of stands were mostly food and clothing, which I don't think she would like, but near the end of all of them, this one particular stand caught my attention, it sold jewelry. I didn't take Haruhi as a person who cares for jewelry, but it was the only stand that felt like there was something Haruhi would like there.

I walked over to the stand and looked at all the jewelry that was displayed.

"Would you like help sir?"

I looked up at the vender then back at the jewelry. "Uh yah, which piece do you think would be good to give a girl as a gift?"

"Is it a lover you're buying for?"

I blushed, but it was hidden by hood. "Um...no, I'm just buying it for her birthday."

He smiled. "Well we got a lot of selections to choose from, so you choose the one you like best."

I looked at the jewelry in the display case and nothing interested me. They were all cheap with other stones portraying to be diamonds. But then I noticed in the corner a necklace with a red sapphire that was cut into a heart.

I pointed to the necklace. "How much for that one?"

The vender looked to where I was pointing and began to laugh. "Oh, that is way too expensive for you." He the box that it was in and held it up for me to see. "Only the wealthiest of people can afford a precious gem like this."

I rolled my eyes. "Can you just tell me how much it is?"

"It's two hundred silver coins. You know I carved this gem myself and…"

I just tuned him out as I reached into my sack of gold coins and took two out and placed it on the counter. "I'll take it."

The vender stopped talking and saw the gold coins. His expression fell. "H-How…"

"You said two hundred silver coins, well two gold coins equal that," I smirked at him, "right?" He continued to stare at me in shock as I held out my hand. "So, I'll take the necklace."

The vender slowly closed the box with the necklace and handed it to me, my smirk widened.

"Thanks." I said as I turned from him and began walking away, leaving a dumbfounded vender.

I walked back to the bakery and saw that everyone was out of the kitchen, still waiting for Haruhi. Tamaki heard the chimes of the door and looked over and saw me.

"Did you find her a gift?" I nodded and he smiled. "Great, Haruhi's break is almost over and then we'll be off to the grotto."

Right when he said that we heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Tamaki looked over at us panicked.

"Hurry hide, she's coming?!" He whispered.

Everyone hid and I quickly hid behind the counter. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, we all jumped out and surprised her.

"Surprise!" We all cheered.

Haruhi jumped and put a hand to her chest as she looked over at us.

She glared. "What are you guys doing here?"

Tamaki smiled at her brightly. "It's for your birthday, we're going on a picnic."

"I thought I told you yesterday that I didn't want a party."

"It's not a party, it's a picnic, they're different."

Haruhi glared at him which made him sweat drop and hide behind the display case. She then huffed and began untying her apron.

"Fine whatever." She said, making Tamaki slowly came out of his hiding spot.

"R-Really, you're going to come?"

She tosses her apron on the counter. "Yah because if I don't you guys won't stop bugging me until I do." She looked back over at us. "So where are we going?"

Tamaki smiled and got out of his hiding place. "It's a surprise, I promise you're going to love it."

Haruhi sighed. "Great, can't wait."

* * *

We were hiking down a path with Tamaki leading the way. I held onto Zorro's reins as I lead him down the path as he had all the picnic supplies strapped to him. I really wish that I knew that we were going on a hike today, I would've brought some food and water for him, but I was thankful that Haruhi packed some extra water so he has it when we reach our destination.

"How much further?" Haruhi groaned.

"We're almost there, just a little further." Tamaki said.

Haruhi groaned again and I held back my laughter, she was so cute. About five minutes passed and we finally made it to the entrance of the cave.

"We're here." Tamaki said as he turned to us."

Haruhi looked at it with a dead panned expression. "So we're having my birthday picnic in...a cave?"

"Not just any cave." He gave her a wink. "A special cave." Haruhi rolled her eyes and Tamaki looked over at me. "Go tie up Zorro and then we'll get the stuff for the picnic."

I gave him a nod and walked Zorro to the closest tree to tie him up. As the other guys got the picnic supplies I poured some water into a bowl and placed it down in front of him.

I began petting his head and smiled at him. "We'll be back in a couple hours alright."

Zorro snorted a reply and I gave him one last pat before following the guys into the cave.

The cave was first slightly dark and cold when we walked through it. The cold breeze didn't really bother me, well granted it could be snowing and I won't be cold. But seeing Haruhi hugging herself and shiver made me realize how cold it must be.

"Hey," I said, drawing her attention, "do you want to wear my cloak? You look cold."

"I'm fine." She said through chattering teeth. "It's just a bit breezy in here, that's all."

Another cold breeze hit us, making her shivering worse. I unhooked my cloak and took it off before placing it around her.

She looked up at me, a slight blush on her cheeks. "What about you, won't you get cold?"

"I'll be fine." I smiled at her. "Don't worry."

Her blush darkened and she just nodded. About a couple minutes passed and we finally made it to the end of the cave.

"We're here." Tamaki said.

We all stopped at the end of the cliff and looked down to see clear blue water deep enough for us to swim in. Haruhi and I looked at it in amazement.

"Wow, so this is the grotto?" I asked.

"Yep." Tamaki said as him and the rest of the group set up the picnic area. "Isn't it amazing?"

"Very." I said as I continued to look down at the water. I've never seen anything like this, not even in books. It truly was amazing, I couldn't believe I've been missing things like this while I've been locked up in the castle.

"So, we're going to have a picnic here?" Haruhi asked.

"Well, not just that." Tamaki said. We both looked over at saw him take off his shirt. "We're also going to go swimming."

Before we could say anything, Tamaki ran to the edge of the cliff and jumped off, landing into the water with a big splash. Soon Honey and Mori joined him by jumping into the water while Kyouya stayed on the blanket reading a book he brought.

"Come in guys." Tamaki yelled down from the water. "The water feels amazing."

I smiled and began taking off my shirt, Haruhi looked at me surprised.

"Wait, you're really going to go?"

"Why not, it looks like a lot of fun."

"But won't your clothes get wet?"

"So, they're just clothes." I tossed my shirt over to where the blanket was. I looked back over at her, the smile still on my face. "Come on, it'll be fun."

Haruhi just stared at me for a bit, then sighed as she took my cloak. "All right, fine."

She tossed it to where my shirt was and she looked back at me. I held out my hand for her and she looked at it, then looked back at me, a smile spreading across her lips. She took my hand and we took a couple steps back.

"Alright on three, one."

"Two."

We gripped each other's hands tighter. "Three."

We both then ran to the edge of the cliff and jumped into the water. The grotto was pretty deep in the center, I'm glad we had a couple deep pounds back at the castle that Kaoru and I swam in when we were younger, or I definitely would've been in trouble. We both resurfaced at the same time and began laughing.

"I have to admit, that was pretty fun." Haruhi chuckled.

"See," I said as I moved my bangs out of my face. "What did I tell you."

Haruhi laughed again and I swam up to her. "I can't believe I actually did this, I usually don't do anything that seems out of my comfort zone, but this, this was awesome."

"Hey, you just have to live on the edge sometimes." I said.

She looked up at me and smiled. We stared at each other for a bit, my heart pounding in my chest. Seeing her soaked from the water, the light twinkling in her eyes, she looked beautiful.

I opened my mouth to say something, but Honey called out to us before I could.

"Look out!"

We both looked up and saw Honey about to land onto us from where he jumped from. I grabbed Haruhi's arm and pulled her towards the edge where our feet touched the ground and I shielded her from the water that hit us from him jumping in. When the water went back still we began laughing again.

"Good thing he warned us or he would've landed on us." I chuckled.

"Yah," We both opened our eyes and blushed when we noticed how close we were to each other. We stared into each other's eyes, making it feel like we were the only two people here, "yah, he would have."

My heart began pounding in my chest as I stared at her. I moved a strand of wet hair behind her ear then placed a hand on her cheek. It felt like if my body had a mind of its own. I began slowly leaning in, our lips brushing against each other's and before I knew it, I was kissing her."

I never felt this way about anyone before, and the way she made me feel was intoxicating, like I needed to be around her all the time or I'll go through serious withdrawal.

After a couple seconds my eyes shot open when I noticed what I was doing and quickly separated from her.

"I'm so sorry." I apologize. "I don't know what came over me, I just…"

I was cut off by Haruhi laughing, I looked down at her with a worried expression.

"Don't worry," Haruhi said as she caressed my cheek, "I actually liked it."

I just looked at her in shock, then smiled. I then kissed her again and this time she kissed back.

"Hey Kyouya." Tamaki called out, making us separate. We looked over at him and saw Tamaki looking up as Kyouya walked up to the edge of the cliff. "Come on, come join us."

"I'd rather not." Kyouya said.

"Come on Kyo-chan." Honey called out to him.

I smiled. "Yah come one."

Haruhi smiled as well. "Yah, the water does feel great."

Kyouya sighed and began taking off his shirt. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

"Yah Kyouya!" Tamaki cheered.

Kyouya took off his glasses and placed them with his shirt. He then jumped into the water and we all cheered.

Haruhi and I looked back over at each other. I smiled at her lovingly and we kissed each other again, holding each other closer. Feeling the strange sensation in my chest, but instead of it being painful, it actually felt really good. I never felt this feeling before, but I could definitely get used to it.

* * *

 **Hey guys I hoped you enjoyed you enjoyed this chapter, I'm really sorry for the long wait but I was really busy because of senior year and being in a play. But now the play is over so I'm trying to update more regularly. I'll try to update in the next week or so if I'm not too busy. I also want to wish my fellow Americans a Happy Thanksgiving, I hope you all enjoy today, please F &R. Until next time.-HH1957**


	10. Chapter 10

Dusk hit the sky and it was time to head back. I led Zorro down the trail back to the village. When we made it back to the bakery we all said our goodbyes and went our separate ways except Haruhi and me. I turned to her with a loving smile.

"I had a really great time." Haruhi said, a smile touching her lips as well.

"I'm glad, I was really worried at first that you weren't going to like Tamaki's idea."

She chuckled. "Well, I don't usually do things like this, but it's fun to change it up a bit. Maybe we can have another picnic at the grotto next year for my birthday again."

"Yah, that would great." We just stared at each other for a bit. We were still a little damp from swimming a couple hours ago.

"Oh," I said, I unhooked and reached into my saddle bag. I pulled out the box with the necklace and handed it to her, "here I got you this."

"Thank you." She took the box from me and opened it. She gasped at the sight of the necklace and looked up at me. "Hikaru I can't take this, it looks way too expensive."

I shrugged my shoulders as I slightly leaned on Zorro. "It really isn't a big deal. I'm a prince, I have way more than enough money. That was barely anything."

She smirked. "Yah, from our taxes."

"Hey I didn't say I was necessarily proud of it." I matched her smirk. "But I won't deny that I enjoy it all."

Haruhi playfully punched my shoulder and chuckled. "You're a jackass."

I chuckled as well, and when we quieted down we stared at each other for a bit.

"So, would you like to come in. I'm sure my dad won't mind."

I smiled. "Sure, I would love…" But I was cut off by the clock tower bells ringing. One, two, three, four, five, six...six rings. MY eyes widened. "Oh no."

I threw the reins over Zorro's head and pulled down the saddle stirrups.

Haruhi looked at me confused. "Hikaru, are you alright?"

"I'm really sorry but I have to go, my family is going to be home soon." I walked up to her moved her hair out of her face before kissing her forehead. "I'll see you as soon as I can."

Haruhi looked up at me sadly. "Alright."

I went back over to Zorro and hopped on his back. I looked back over at her. "I promise I'll be back soon." I reassured.

Haruhi just gave me a nod. "I'll wait for you."

I smiled at her, then turned Zorro and kicked him, making him start to gallop away.

Haruhi watched as I went out of sight. "Hopefully I don't have to wait long."

* * *

I galloped through the woods, finally seeing the castle. Instead of stopping and opening the gate myself, I kicked Zorro to go faster then jump the fence. But as he landed back on the ground my stirrup broke, making me fall off. I hit the ground with a loud thud causing me to gasp in pain. Zorro stopped and looked back over at me, seeing that I was lying face down on the floor. When he noticed that I wasn't moving he trotted over to me and began nudging me with his nose.

I groaned and slowly began getting up. "I'm alright. Don't worry."

I grabbed my stirrup that broke off then quickly led Zorro to the stables. I handed him to a stable hand and gave them my stirrup.

"Put Zorro away and fix my stirrup."

The stable hand nodded and I began running towards the castle. About half way my legs began to burn and the pain in my side from where I fell. I clenched my jaw and groaned in pain as I climbed up the stairs of the porch. I opened the door and started making my way towards the throne room, but as I turned the corner I almost ran into Naomi who was standing there. Luckily, I was able to stop in front of her before I could run into her. She had a glare on her face, which would've made me nervous if I wasn't already exhausted.

"Where were you?" Her voice was stern, she definitely was mad.

"I uh...I was riding Zorro...around the estate." I said through pants.

"I, nor any other staff members here saw you anywhere around the estate for six to seven hours." Her glare hardened when she noticed my cloak. "You were outside the castle walls, weren't you?"

I gulped. "N-No I…"

"Then why are you out of breath if you weren't out of the castle grounds. It seems like you're worried to get caught."

"I...I…"

"Hikaru, tell me what you were doing."

I sighed defeated. "Alright fine, I snuck out of the castle grounds." I looked at her with pleading eyes. "Please don't tell my parents, I don't know what they're going to do if they find out."

Naomi sighed and folded her arms over her chest. "Alright fine, I won't tell your parents about you sneaking out." She looked back up at me. "Is this your first time out?"

"...No…"

Hey glare returned to her face. "Hikaru!"

"Look I'm sorry, but I felt so suffocated being locked up in here for sixteen years that I couldn't take it anymore. So, I left one night when my parents were away, and now every time they leave I sneak out of the castle grounds."

"Does anybody know about you?"

"No...not really.'

"Hikaru!"

"Just a couple friends of mine that accidently found out. But I promise that they're the only ones who know and they don't know anything about my powers."

Naomi began rubbing her temples, feeling a headache coming on. "At least they don't know about your powers. But you can't let anyone else find out about you."

"They won't." I reassured. "I use the hood of my cloak to hide my face. So, you won't have to worry about that."

"God, I sure hope so." She looked back up at me. "Do you plan to sneak off again?" I hesitated for a bit, afraid to answer, then I nodded. Naomi sighed. "Fine, I won't stop you." A smile spread across my face as she continued. "But you have to promise me that you'll be careful."

"Yes, yes I promise." I hugged her. "Thank you so much."

She smirked as she hugged me back. "You're lucky that I like you."

I chuckled as I separated from her. "Yah, I'm very lucky."

Right after I said that, we heard the front doors of the castle open. Naomi unhooked my cloak.

"Go greet them. I know how excited Kaoru is to see you."

I nodded and gave her another quick hug before entering the throne room. Kaoru had an agitated expression on his face as mom was gashing about something to him as they were walking in with Dad trailing behind them. As I trotted into the throne room Kaoru's expression changed to a smile when he saw me and began running towards me before hugging me.

"Oh thank God you're here. I can barely stand listening to mom gush about that family anymore." He unwrapped his arms around me then began leading me towards the stairs. "Come on, I got something to show you."

Mom watched us as Kaoru led me away. "Oh Kaoru," she called out to him, "remember to think about what I told you."

"I already said no mom and my answer won't change."

Mom sighed disappointed, but then looked back up at us as we disappeared down the hall. "He'll change his mind one day. She seems like a nice girl."

Dad walked up behind mom and put his hands on her shoulders. "I really hope he does, and maybe we can get Hikaru together with her twin sister."

Mom's smile grew as she placed her hand over dad's. "Yah, that would be great."

Kaoru tugged me into our room and closed the door. I rubbed my wrist as the pain began to set in from him dragging me, I looked at him.

"So what did you want to show me?"

Kaoru's smile grew. "You know how we're identical twins but we somehow have different colored hair."

"Yah…"

"Well yesterday when I was talking to one of the princess', she pointed out that there was something dark in my hair. So, I went to the bathroom to see what it was and look," he walked up to me as he moved a part of his bangs away and I saw a small lock of hair in his hair that was dark brown, almost black, just like my hair. I just looked at it in shock as Kaoru put his hair back in place, leaving the strand of dark hair a bit noticeable by the ear. "Isn't it cool? I always noticed something dark in my hair when I put on my crown, but I just thought it wasn't anything. Isn't it amazing?"

I just continued to look at him at shock. "Yah it is. But do you think it means anything?"

"I don't think it does, but it means a lot to me. I know it seems stupid to care a lot about something so small, but it really does means a lot to me. I just can't believe that I never really noticed this before."

I thought for a bit as I looked at the dark hair, then drifted my eyes back to him. "Maybe that's why mom and dad always had you have bangs, so it would be hidden."

"Maybe, I don't know. But I'm not going to hide it anymore." He sighed happily and laid down on his bed. "Now if only I had powers."

I gave him a soft chuckle as I sat on my bed. "Trust me, you don't want them."

"Are you kidding me?" He said as he shot up and looked at me. "I would love it, especially if you had powers as well."

My smile fell and I looked at him sadly. "But you'll be locked up in the castle all the time. You wouldn't want that."

He smiled at me. "If you're here I wouldn't care. I would be way more happier hanging here with you all the time then be out there."

I just stared at him for a bit, then a smile returned to my face. I'm really glad that he didn't have to suffer being back in the castle because having powers, but I'm glad to know that if he did he would always be happy being around me, and I feel the same way.

* * *

It's been about two months since Haruhi's birthday. I've snuck out of the castle quite a bit, and now that Naomi knows she sometimes helped me sneak out when my parents were still here by going through the secret hidden door in my study room that led to outside right next to the stables. My parents would rarely ask where I was and if they did Naomi would tell them a little white lie saying that I was studying or riding around the estate with Zorro.

Because I've been able to leave the castle more, I've gotten to get closer to Haruhi. Ever since we kissed at the grotto our relationship grew stronger every time we met up. We would go on little things she called "dates", when she first brought them up I first thought she was talking about the fruit, then got embarrassed when she told me what they actually were. I read about characters going on dates in books a couple times, but that was a while ago so I guess it slipped my mind.

I sat at the counter as I watched her bake, a smile on my face. She noticed me smiling at her and looked at me.

"What are you smiling about?" She asked.

"Just at you." I said, making her rolling her eyes. She then smiled and looked back at me.

"How about you come over and help me finish these before the guys get here instead of you watching me?"

"You know, I would love too, but I'm a prince so I don't do those kinds of things."

She chuckled. "You're a jerk."

"But you love me." I teased.

"Yah, I guess I do...a little." I scoffed playfully, making her laugh. "I'm just joking."

"You're lucky that I like you or I would've sent you to the stocks," I smirked, "or even worse the dungeon."

She just laughed and continued baking. About an hour later the rest of the gang arrived. Tamaki walked up to a table in the kitchen and slammed an unrolled map on it.

"Alright this is the plan for today." Tamaki pointed to a trial on the map. "I've heard that there is an amazing waterfall at the end of it."

Kyouya looked at the trail Tamaki pointed to and pushed up his glasses. "Tamaki that's Stormholt, it's the most dangerous trail in Avalon."

"What's so dangerous about it?" I asked.

"They named the trail Stormholt because it's surrounded by mountains so when it rains the trail gets hit the most. Because off all the rain fall the dirt from underneath the boulders are very thin so a lot of boulders fall, even with the slightest amount of wind, and it rained last night so the trail will be even more dangerous."

"But it's worth it." Tamaki looked over at him with sad puppy dog eyes. "And it's almost my birthday, I really want to go."

Kyouya was unfazed by Tamaki's look, but soon the look intensified when tears began to weld up in his eyes. Kyouya's eye twitched and he let out a frustrated sigh.

"Fine if you really want to go we'll go."

Tamaki's smile returned as he closed the map. "Thank you Kyouya." He faced all of us. "Ok the Stormholt trail is about two hours to a beautiful waterfall so we should leave soon so we'll have enough time to enjoy it."

After he said that we broke off into groups. I was with Haruhi packing up the food and water. I looked over at her and saw that she had a concerned look on her face.

"Hey," I said, getting her attention, "are you alright?"

"Yah I'm fine, it's just," she sighed as she went back to packing up the food, "I'm really nervous about going down Stormholt trail. I've heard about people going down the trail and never coming back."

I moved her hair behind her ear and kissed her head. "Don't worry, I'll protect you."

I promise that.

* * *

We were about half way down Stormholt trail, and I haven't noticed anything dangerous so far. I didn't want to bring Zorro because of the potential dangers so Mori was carrying the picnic basket. I held onto Haruhi's hand as we walked down the trail, trying to keep her comforted as we walked down the trail.

I looked down at her. "Are you still nervous?"

"A little, but not as much as before."

I gave her a small smirk. "Well I can feel the sweat from your hand seeping through my gloves so I highly doubt that. Unless," my smirk widened as I leaned down to her ear, "you're nervous being around me." I purred.

Haruhi blushed and playfully hit me. "Stop lying, my hands are not sweaty."

I chuckled. "Yah, sure."

She huffed out frustrated breath and looked back at me. "Why do you always wear gloves anyway?"

My chuckling stopped and I looked over at her. Should I tell her the truth, about my powers? I don't want to keep the secret of my powers from her forever, but if I do would she fear me like my parents warned me about?"

"Hikaru?" Her voice broke me out of my thought. She had a confused look on her face. "Are you alright? You've just been staring at me after I asked you that question."

I blushed embarrassed. "Sorry, I just got lost in thought." I cleared my throat. "So, I wear the gloves because...because I don't know. I just like to wear them."

Haruhi eyed me a bit suspiciously as if she didn't believe me, but then just shrugged it off. "Alright."

We continued walking down the trail and as soon we were surrounded by the mountains Kyouya was talking about. There were huge boulders all over them and if one tumbled down it could crush us.

"Aw man."

I looked back at the trail and saw Tamaki standing in front of a boulder that was blocking the trail.

He sighed as he put his hand on the rock. "How are we going to get around this?"

"Tamaki let's go home." Kyouya said through chattering teeth, his arms wrapped around himself. "It's getting really cold and the winds are starting to pick up even more which is making the trail even more dangerous."

"Come on we can't go back now Kyouya, we're almost there. We just have to find a way to go around and then…"

But soon Tamaki grew quiet as we heard a creaking. We all looked up and saw a loose boulder began rolling down the mountain towards us.

Tamaki looked at us panicked. "Everybody get out of the way!"

Everybody ran away from the boulder except for me. I just stared up at it as I watched it tumble down. I then felt someone grab my hand.

"Come on." Haruhi yelled.

She then led away from the boulder, but as the boulder hit the ground, the impact made us both fall on the floor. As I heard creaking again I quickly looked up and saw another boulder tumbling down right where Haruhi was, who landed a couple feet in front of me. She was looking up at the boulder in horror.

"Haruhi move!" I yelled, but she didn't listen. "Haruhi!" I looked back at the boulder and my eyes widened when I saw that it was about to hit her. I quickly reached out my hand. "No!"

Haruhi covered her head with her hands, waiting for the boulder to hit her. But after a few moments passed and nothing happened she opened her eyes and saw that there was a shadow around her. She then looked up and grew horrified when she saw the rock was levitating in the air above her.

"Haruhi!"

She looked over at me and saw me having trouble keeping my arms up as if I was trying to hold up something. "Hikaru…?"

I looked at her, gritting my teeth in pain. "Hurry up and move, I don't know how much longer I can keep this up!"

Haruhi did as I said and when she was safe I quickly made my way over to the group before letting the boulder drop. I hunched over and tried to regain my breath.

"Hikaru…"

I looked up at the group and saw everyone but Kyouya looking at me terrified.

"So it's true," Haruhi said, making me look over at her, "the powers, the different colored hair...It's all true."

"Haruhi…" I tried reaching out to her, but she just backed away from me."

"No don't touch me, please...Get away." She said as she hid behind Tamaki.

I just stood there, tears burning my eyes. Mom and Dad were right, the towns people would fear me because of my powers… and think I'm a monster.

"We should all get back, I don't want to risk another boulder hitting us." Kyouya looked over at me, a sad expression on his face. "Hikaru if you want I can…"

"No I'm fine…" I said, my bangs covering my face. "I'll...I'll just stay here for a bit."

"Are you sure?"

I didn't respond to him and soon they all began walking away. When they were all gone I began clenching my fists, starting to feel the heat from the fire coming from my hands. I then looked up, my bangs still covering up my left eye. As the anger became too much for me to handle I just let it go.

* * *

I leaned on to a boulder as I tried to catch my breath as I tried to catch my breath. I looked at the damage I did and saw that half the mountain was burnt with some patches of grass still on fire, while the other half of the mountain was covered in ice. I've never done anything like this before…

When I caught my breath I slowly made my way over to a boulder that was covered in ice. The gravel under my boots turned into snow as I approached the boulder. I looked at my reflection from the sheet of ice and grew horrified at what I saw.

My eyes were no longer hazel but a glowing green color, but then they soon turned back to normal. I put a hand near my eye.

"What just happened to me?"


	11. Chapter 11

Three weeks slowly passed since Tamaki's birthday hike, and I was miserable. I haven't left the castle since I came back. Kaoru immediately noticed that I was down and asked if I was alright. It hurt to lie to him, but I couldn't tell him that I was outside the castle walls, at least not yet anyways.

I haven't really ever left my room, the only times I ever left was when I had to eat or had a lesson with Naomi, but after I was done I would just shut myself back in my room. I told Naomi about everything and she saw how much this was all affecting me, so she tried to shorten our lessons a bit so she wouldn't give me too much work when I was like that.

Was this what a break up felt like, your heart broken into a million pieces because the girl you love doesn't want you anymore? According to Naomi, it is. I hated love, I don't get how people love doing something so painful...but yet I also loved love, and understood why people loved doing something so wonderful. Being with Haruhi for the past couple months has been the most fun I've had in a really long time...and I never wanted that to end…

I sighed sadly as I laid in my bed staring up at the ceiling. Since Haruhi and I broke up, this is what I've been doing with most of my time. I brought up my hand and glared at it as I conjured up a flame in my palm. I stared at the flame, feeling the heat of it on my face. I watched as the flame grew bigger and hotter as I grew angrier at the sight at it. The bottom of the flame began to turn a light blue color, and slowly began spreading up through the flame.

I growled and clenched my hand into a fist, making the flame disappear. I hated my powers, they're the reason why everything in my life was messed up. I couldn't leave the castle because of them; the villagers would fear me and might hurt my family. I couldn't be friends with any of the other royal families in fear that my existence would get out and spread throughout the kingdom, and...my powers kept me from having a relationship with the people besides my family I loved the most.

I huffed and put my hand down, staring back up at the ceiling sadly. "I hate my life…"

After a couple more minutes of wallowing in self pity, there was a knock on my door. The door opened when I didn't reply and Kaoru popped his head in, he gave me a sad smile.

"Hey," he said, "how are you feeling?" I just mumbled a inaudible reply and Kaoru entered our room, closing the door. He walked over to me and knelt down next to my bed. "Come on, can you just tell me what's going on? I know that you're not sick."

I sighed and slowly sat up, putting my pillow in my lap. I looked up at him with doleful eyes. "Well you promise not to tell mom and dad?"

He lifted his left hand and used his right to draw an X over his heart. "Cross my heart."

"Ok," I took a deep breath and looked down as I played with the fabric of my pillow case, "I've been sneaking out of the castle grounds for the past four months." I looked back at Kaoru and saw a faint smile on his face. "What's that look for?"

His smile grew and he began to quietly laugh. "I know, I've known for awhile now."

My face grew pale. "What?"

"Yeah, that night of the festival a couple months ago, I saw you in the crowd. It took me a while to realize it was you, but when I noticed that it was your cloak, which the two of us only have in the kingdom, I knew it was you." He winked at me. "Don't worry, mom and dad don't know.

I let out a sigh of relief and ran a hand through my hair, thanking God that they didn't know.

"So, now tell me why you've been so upset. Did you see something you didn't like?"

"No, not exactly," I looked up at him with a slight smirk, "would you believe me if I told you that I got a girlfriend?"

Kaoru began to laugh, then when he saw that I wasn't laughing along with him, just giving him a cocked eyebrow his smile immediately fell. "Wait you're serious?"

I nodded and Kaoru grabbed my shoulders and pulled me closer to him until we were centimeters apart, his eyes locked with mine.

"Tell. Me. Everything."

I told Kaoru about everything, about how I met everyone to the break up three weeks ago. Kaoru listened in awe, as if he was a kid listening to a fairytale. He would gasp throughout the whole thing whenever something shocking happened, until I got to the break up. His expression turned sad as I told him what happened during the hike.

"And that's what happened?" I sighed sadly.

"B-But you saved her. She should love you even more because of that not hate you. If I was her I definitely would've fallen even more in love with you."

I shrugged my shoulder and ran my hand through my hair as I looked away. "Well, I guess she doesn't think the same way as you."

"So, I was right about that day you were feeling all those pains in your chest? You were in love?" I nodded and Kaoru's smile reappeared. "Yes, I knew it! I knew you were in love! I knew reading that book would help you!"

I just rolled my eyes, blowing my bangs out of my face. "Yeah, whatever," I sighed for what felt like the umpteenth time that day and laid my head in my hand, looking down sadly. "There's really no use in talking about it now."

Kaoru matched my expression as he looked at me. It killed him to see me like this, he knew how hard my life was hiding away in this castle, forbidden to even step outside the gates in fear of someone seeing me. He kept trying to tell me ever since we were little that the outside world wasn't anything special, but I knew that was bull.

Now that I know what life outside the castle was like I don't want to be cooped up in this place anymore. I was just here because of the break up, in fear of running into Haruhi, making my emotions becoming too overwhelming for me to control.

Kaoru nudged me, causing me to look back up at him. He gave me a sad smile.

"Hey, let's go for a ride. It'll be fun and take your mind off of everything, and I'm sure Zorro would love the exercise."

"I don't really feel like riding around the estate today. I've already seen it thousands of times already."

His smile turned into a mischievous smirk. "Who said we were going to ride around the estate?"

I looked at Kaoru surprised from what he was suggesting. He has broken the rules before, he'll proudly admit that, but they were usually something small, like taking a sweet before dinner or doing something for me. Even though I've never asked him to do it, though by what he was suggesting this would've been the biggest rule he's ever broken.

"What if we're out there and we see Haruhi? She usually picks berries in the forest a couple times a week."

"Then I'll confront her and throw her in the dungeon for breaking my brother's heart."

I glared at him. "Kaoru…" I warned.

He held up his hands in defense and laughed. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding." He lowered his hands and smiled at me. "We'll just sneak around her so she won't notice us."

"What if we get caught?"

"Then I'll take the blame, don't worry about it. Come on, I promise it'll be fun."

I sat there, contemplating if I should go or not. I really did want to go, I was beginning to get stir crazy. I missed the wide open areas, the smell of the trees and other plants. The crisped air through my hair, the crowds of people enjoying themselves, but yet I was also scared. I was afraid that I would run into Haruhi and all the events that happened that day would flood back into my mind, or we would get caught and I would have to be placed in even tighter lockdown in the castle.

I looked up at Kaoru, finally making my decision. I smirked, which he matched immediately when he saw it. "Yeah, let's get out of here. I've already broken the rule multiple times. One more couldn't hurt."

* * *

Haruhi shot up from her bed panting, her clothes and sheets drenched in sweat. She looked around the room frantic. When she saw that she was safe she let out a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off her forehead. She's been having nightmares for almost the past month. They were usually the same thing, a dark figure of a person that she knew terrorizing the kingdom.

She stared down sadly at her blanket that she had clenched in her hands. "Another horrible dream and it felt so real again."

She knew who the figure was and didn't want to fear them because she loved them, but from what people have told her and what she's read in folktales, elder twins held a dangerous dark power that could destroy the whole kingdom in an instance.

There was a knock on the door and it slowly opened. Ranka popped his head in and looked at his daughter.

"Haruhi, are you ok? Is everything alright?"

She looked over at him and gave him her best fake smile. "Yeah I'm fine. I just had a bad dream, that's all."

Ranka eyed her suspiciously, then entered her room and sat down on the foot of her bed. He put a hand on her knee. "You've been having nightmares almost every night through the past three weeks, what's wrong?" He looked at her sadly. "Is this about what happened with Hikaru?"

Haruhi sighed sadly and looked down, putting her covers around her stomach. "Yah," she ran a hand through her disheveled hair and placed it over her right shoulder, "I keep having these nightmares about him that he destroys the kingdom or trying to kill us because he's the cursed twin. Just like in the folktale…"

"Has he ever done anything that could indicate that he would do something like that?"

She looked back up at her father, thinking all the time we spent together. The only things that she remembered were happy memories, nothing that could indicate that I was anything like what the folktale described.

"No…" She finally answered.

"Then why are you so afraid of him now if he hasn't done anything even close to that before?"

"Who wouldn't be, it's unnatural."

"It may be unnatural, but as long as he's not hurting anyone then there's nothing to be afraid of." He reassured, giving her a warm smile.

"It's just...the folktale that we were told about twins when we were younger. About how the cursed twin Kuro, who went through the whole kingdom on a rampage, destroying everything and killing random people in his path over two hundred years ago. Now learning that Hikaru is one of those twins…" She looked at her father sadly. "I'm afraid he might turn into something like that."

"Haruhi, in the folktale Kuro was evil throughout the whole story. He tried to kill his twin brother Akio multiple times because their parents favored him because he was normal. It had nothing to do with his powers. So you shouldn't be worried about Hikaru turning evil."

He saw his daughter grow depressed and looked away from him again. Playing with the necklace that I have given her that she still wore. His heart began hurting seeing his daughter like this; the only other times he's seen her like this was when her mother passed away and when her and Tamaki broke up.

He scooted over on her bed to be next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, bringing her closer to him as she laid her head on his shoulder.

"I don't know what to do." She said, her voice brittle.

Ranka tightened his grip around his daughter. "Do you love him?"

Haruhi was hesitant for a bit, then slowly nodded her head that was still laying on her dad's shoulder. "Then I think you shouldn't give up on him, because you and I both know that he loves you too and wouldn't do anything to hurt you."

Haruhi just remained silent. She knew that she was in love with me. She missed the days we spent together. All she does now was work and sleep. She was too depressed to do anything else. The group would come and try to visit her, but Ranka would just tell them that she wasn't feeling well and ask them to leave.

"Hey since you're finally up, do you think you can go get some berries? I just ran out."

Haruhi lifted up her head from her dad's shoulder and smiled at him. "Is that the reason you came to my room? To see if I was awake to get more berries for you?"

"Well, that's one of the reasons," he smiled back, happy to see that his daughter was cheering up, "but I really do need them, and I can't leave the bakery unattended because you're still so sad and probably wouldn't want to talk to the customers."

Haruhi laughed and pushed her dad away from her playfully. "Ok, ok fine. I'll go."

"See, this is why you're my favorite child."

"I'm your only child dad."

"Which means you don't have to compete to be my favorite."

Haruhi laughed again then hugged him. "Thanks dad. I love you."

He wrapped his arms around his daughter, his smile softened. "I love you too."

* * *

Kaoru and I were riding down a trail in the forest. Zorro and Knight carefully walked through the uneven snow that was caused by the carriages going down the trail. It might've late April but it would still occasionally snow until May.

Kaoru took in a deep breath then released it, his breath turning into mist. "Isn't this refreshing? Finally some fresh air after being cooped up in that castle for so long."

I smiled, looking over at him. "Yeah, I almost forgot how it felt like to be outside the castle walls. It really is refreshing."

"You know, I never thought I would be riding with you outside our estate. I know it might sound a bit weird, but I'm really happy that you broke the rules and left the castle that night. If you didn't, you probably would be still locked up in the castle 24/7, afraid of the outside world."

"I'm glad too, if I didn't I probably would've been too afraid to try it another night. It was just an impulsive decision that I'm happy I made."

Kaoru looked at all the snow, a cold breeze blew past us making Kaoru shiver. He used one of his hands to readjust his cloak over his shoulder so he could try and warm up.

"I can't believe it's still snowing this late in April, it's supposed to be spring. I'm so sick of snow."

"You and me both."

"Why are you tired of it? You can't get cold." He chuckled.

"I may not get cold, but I'm sick of all this cloudy wet weather. I'm ready for some sun."

"Ugh, don't even get me started with the sun. Mom made me stay out in the cold freezing rain during dad's speech. We might've had something to cover us from getting wet but I was still cold and miserable."

I just laughed as Kaoru continued to rant about the weather. I'm really glad that Kaoru convinced me into coming on this ride. Because we were getting closer to becoming adults, Kaoru has been a lot busier. He is now forced to go on every trip outside the kingdom even if he didn't want to because he was next in line for the throne. When we were younger he was able to stay home usually, only forced to go on trips that the whole royal family had attend. I really did miss those days that he was able to stay home, now because of his new royal duties he has been barely home lately. This has been the longest he's been home for the past six months, and he's only been home for a week and a half, but I'm really nervous that he might have to leave again soon.

"Hey Kaoru," I said, making him look over at me, "when are you, mom and dad leaving again?"

"Oh, I didn't tell you?" A smile formed on his face. "We just finished doing the last of the royal duties outside the kingdom. So I'm staying here until more come up. Which won't be for a couple months."

"Really?"

Kaoru nodded and a bright smile spread across my face. I was waiting for the day that he wouldn't have to leave overnight anymore. It might only be for a couple months, but it was better than nothing.

We continued riding down the trail, talking and laughing to each other. Then suddenly something out of the corner of my eye made me stop Zorro. Kaoru looked at me confused and stopped his horse as well, turning him to face me.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know," I replied, looking around the forest, "but I think I saw something."

I continued to look towards the direction where I saw something and when I finally found it, my face fell, my heart began to hurt again just like that day, making my eyes burn from holding back tears. Kaoru noticed my expression and faced the direction I was looking towards. He saw a young brunette girl with cheap clothing walking through a section of the forest by the lake with a basket around her wrist. Kaoru looked back towards me.

"Is that Haruhi?"

I nodded and turned away from her, a grave expression on my face. I softly kicked Zorro with my heels and he began walking. "Come on, let's go."

Kaoru just watched me pass him, then looked back at Haruhi before turning Knight around to follow me. For a couple minutes we were silent. Kaoru would occasionally look over at me, then back at the nature around us, waiting for me to speak. He really wanted to ask me how I was doing after seeing Haruhi, but he thought I should be the one to start up the conversation.

I sighed sadly and was about to tell Kaoru that we should just head back when Zorro suddenly stopped, making me jerk forward. I regained my balance and looked down at Zorro confused. I kicked him, trying to make him move but he just stayed still. I began to grow irritated and kicked him harder, but he still wouldn't budge.

Kaoru walked up and stopped his horse beside me. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know, he just stopped moving." I growled as I continued to kick him. "He's never done this before."

"Here, let me try and help."

Kaoru grabbed a portion of Zorro's reins and began tugging him forward, trying to get him to move, but Zorro just responded by darting backwards causing Kaoru to let go of the rein so he wouldn't fall off.

"Woah, woah Zorro!" I gripped the reins, trying to calm him down, but he wouldn't listen.

He began hopping his front hooves up and down while snorting before rearing up, whining loudly.

"What the hell is wrong with him?!" Kaoru panicked.

"I don't know!" I gripped onto his mane so I wouldn't fall off. "He's never acted like this before!"

Zorro went back down, then began bobbing his head up and down, whining. Knight seemed to be replying to him by snorting and whining back.

"I think they're talking to each other." Kaoru said.

Knight then jolted forward, making Kaoru grunt as he landed on his neck from the sudden movement.

"He's starting to act out too. What the hell is going on with them?" I asked even though I knew Kaoru didn't know as well.

They've never acted out like this before. When our parents were looking for horses they chose the most well behaved and trained horses so we wouldn't have to deal with stuff like this.

Then suddenly Zorro turned around and he began communicating with Knight again, stomping their hooves on the ground. Kaoru and I looked at each other nervously, gripping our reins tightly, knowing what was about to happen.

Zorro and Knight then took off down the trail, not stopping no matter how hard we tried to make them to.

* * *

Haruhi picked another berry and put it in her basket. She sighed and brushed her hair out of her face, looking up at the sun seeing time of day it was. Even though it was cloudy she could still see the glow of the sun through the clouds. The glow was in the middle of the sky, which meant it was midday. She's been out here for a couple hours picking berries. She looked down at her basket and saw that it was three fourths full.

"That should be enough for a couple days." She sighed again and began walking back home. "I should just plant a couple seeds behind our bakery so I don't have to keep coming into the forest to get some.

She looked through the berries to make sure she didn't accidently pick any bad ones. As she took another step, she suddenly heard a loud crack. Haruhi immediately stopped where she was and looked down at her feet. She grew pale when she saw that she was standing on ice that was beginning to crack beneath her.

"Crap," she whispered nervously, as if her voice would crack the ice even further, "when I was looking through my basket I've must've accidently walked on the lake."

She looked over to her left and saw that the bank was only about twenty feet away, and if she moved slowly and carefully she could safely make it there. She slowly began making her way to the bank, taking small, careful steps, holding her breath out of instinct. As Haruhi was only a few feet away from the bank, another loud crack made her stop. She look towards where the cracking sound was coming from and saw where she was standing before has cracked even more, and the cracks was heading towards her, fast. She tried to move again but a small pool of water began to form underneath her feet. She was trapped. She couldn't move closer to the bank because the ice was too thin, and she couldn't stay where she was because the cracks were coming towards her. No matter what she did, she was going to go in the water.

As the cracks were only a few feet away, she threw the basket of berries to the bank, knowing it would only weigh her down and by her sudden movement the ice gave out from underneath her, sending her deep into the waters of the frozen lake.


	12. Chapter 12

**Haruhi**

Cold, that was the only feeling Haruhi could feel right now. Her body instantly grew numb she fell into the water; she couldn't even move her limbs to swim up. Her body slowly sank; she could see the light of the sun shine through the hole she fell through began to get smaller and smaller. She could feel her heartbeat began to slow down and her lungs began burning for air.

Black was starting to surround her vision, turning it fuzzy. She closed her eyes as she felt her body was about to shut down. As she was about to slip out of consciousness she heard a faint splash sound. She faintly opened her eyes and saw a blurry figure swimming down towards her. The only thing she could see of the figure was their bright hazel eyes.

Hikaru…

She then closed her eyes and let out one last breath before falling unconscious as the figure grabbed her hand and began pulling her up to the surface.

* * *

 **Hikaru**

I took in a big breath of air as I reached the surface of the water and lifted Haruhi's head above the water so she could breathe. I tried grabbing on to the edge of the ice but as my hand touched it the ice would immediately crumble.

"Shit!" I cursed.

I put Haruhi on my back and wrapped her limp arms around my neck so it would be easier to keep her above water as I tried to get a hold of the edge. When I finally got a hold of it I tried to get my arms on the sturdy ice to lift myself up but Haruhi's arms would fall from around my neck. I growled out of frustration as I let go of the edge and rewrapped her arms around my neck, then putting one arm back on the ice to keep us afloat as I quickly tried to come up with a plan.

"Hikaru!" I looked over towards the bank and saw Kaoru slowly beginning making his way towards us, taking careful steps so the ice wouldn't crack underneath him. "Hold on I'm coming."

My eyes widened in panic at what he was doing. "No Kaoru don't, you can fall in! Go back to the bank!" I demanded.

He glared at me as he tried to keep his balance. "I'm not just going to stand by and watch you try to save her! I'm helping!"

I huffed in annoyence, knowing there's no time to argue with him. "Fine, but don't walk on the ice, you could easily break it. Crawl over to us."

Kaoru nodded and slowly got down to his stomach, being careful not to break the ice. He gulped as he heard the ice creak blow him then slowly began crawling on his stomach over to us. I bit my lip impatiently as I waited for him to reach us. I looked over to Haruhi and saw that her lips were turning a scary shade of blue and her whole body was pale. If we didn't get her out quick she was surely going to die.

After about a minute of fast careful crawling, which felt like hours, Kaoru finally reached us.

"Alright, give me her hand and I'll pull her up the best I can as you push her up."

I nodded and unwrapped Haruhi's arms from around my neck and handed her off to Kaoru. After he grabbed her hands I made my way behind her and grabbed her hips.

"On the count of three, alright?" He directed, which I nodded to in response. "Ok, one."

"Two."

"Three."

On three we worked together to pull Haruhi out of the water carefully. As Kaoru had her safely in his arms I used the ice ledge to pull myself out of the water.

"Come on, we have to hurry, her body could shut down any minute." I said.

Kaoru and I slowly began crawling back to the bank with Haruhi in between us. The creaking of the ice began growing louder because of all our weight. Kaoru gulped and stopped when he heard another loud creek.

I looked over at him and saw him staring down at the water underneath the ice nervously.

"Don't look at the water, just keep going."

He looked back over at me and gave me a small nod before resuming to crawl. After what felt like eternity we finally reached the bank. We lifted Haruhi off the ice and onto the grass, I then knelt down next to her. I could see her chest slightly moving up and down which almost brought a smile of relief to my face. She was still breathing. I put two fingers to the side of her neck, trying to find her pulse. I couldn't even feel coldness, but I could tell her skin was ice cold by how white it was. Kaoru waited nervously next to me, praying that we weren't too late to save her. I moved my fingers around the upper side of her neck until I finally found her pulse, which was barely there.

"She's alive," I said, making Kaoru let out a breath her was holding in, "but just barely. We need to warm her up quick."

"Here," Kaoru took off his white cloak and handed it to me. "Use this and warm it up with your powers, your cloak is too wet."

I took the cloak from him without a second thought and quickly put it around Haruhi. I then placed my hands over the fabric and began warming it up. I bit my lip nervously as I waited, hoping that this would work. Soon the frost that formed on her hair began to melt and her breathing became more normal, then after a couple more seconds she gasped and opened her eyes half way as she took in shaky breaths.

"H-Hikaru..?" She asked through chattering teeth.

"Oh thank God," I smiled, feeling tears stinging my eyes. "You're alive," I laid my forehead on top of hers; "you're alive."

"Y-You're so w-warm…"

She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me closer. I blushed, I haven't been this close to her in a while and it felt strange. I shook my head, trying to get those thoughts out of my head. I then stood and lifted her up bridle style, her arms still around me.

I looked over at Kaoru. "Get the horses; I'll continue warming her up."

Kaoru nodded and ran over to the horses that were tied up to a tree grazing. I tightened my grip around, bringing up my body heat to try and warm her up. Her involuntary shaking was so hard that it was beginning to shake me. No matter how hard I tried to get her to stop shaking, another gust of wind would blow past us, making her shivering even worse. We had to get her home quick, or she might get really sick...or freeze to death.

Kaoru ran over with the horses and put the reins over their heads. I handed Haruhi over to Kaoru before mounting onto Zorro. He then helped her onto Zorro's back and she weakly wrapped her arms around my torso, trying to stay warm. Kaoru went over to Knight and was about to mount onto him when Haruhi spoke up.

M-My basket," she stuttered through her chattering teeth, "ge-get my basket…"

The basket was sitting sideways on the bank, some of the berries spilled over on the ground. Kaoru looked over at me, as if he was considering if it was worth it or not and asking me for my opinion.

I just titled my head towards it. "Get the basket."

Kaoru nodded and hurried over to the basket. He scooped the spilled berries back into the basket before returning to us and mounting onto Knight.

"Ok, I got the basket. You know how to get to her house right?"

"Yes," I turned Zorro towards the direction of the village and put my hood up, "follow me."

I kicked Zorro and he immediately began galloping towards the village, with Kaoru following closely behind.

Dear God, please let her be ok.

* * *

We galloped through the village, heading towards the bakery. We weren't going to stop for anyone so every time people were in our way, Kaoru would use his right arm to try and signal them to move.

"Get out of the way!" He shouted.

People quickly jumped out of the way of us then looked back at us and noticed that it was the prince that was riding through town, wondering why he was here. After the shock wore off they hurried back to their booths and homes to clean them up to make them more presentable for him.

Finally after dodging a couple more groups of people, we finally made it to the bakery. Kaoru hopped off of Knight and quickly tied out horses up to a post and helped Haruhi off Zorro's back. When she was safely in his arms I hopped off Zorro's back and took Haruhi from Kaoru, we then hurried into the bakery. By hearing the chimes from the door, Ranka made his way to the front from the kitchen.

"You're back earlier than usual Haruhi, were the berries still too frozen to pick?"

As he moved the curtain away his eyes immediately landed on his pale and quivering daughter in my arms. His expression immediately fell and he grew as pale as her. He then dropped the bowl of batter in his arms, not caring that it made a mess on the floor and ran over to her.

"Wh-What happened to her?" He stuttered in panic, brushing her damp hair out of her face and put the back of his hand on her cheek, feeling how cold her skin was. "She's ice cold."

"She accidently walked onto a frozen lake and fell through. We were lucky that we got there when we did. Any longer she would've froze to death. I've been warming her up with my powers, but it doesn't seem to be working."

"It looks like she has the first signs of hypothermia, we have her to her bed and warm her up."

I nodded and Ranka led Kaoru and I up to the spiral staircase, then to her room. He opened up the door for us and I rushed over to her bed, putting the covers over her after I laid her down. Her shivering died down a little from when we were outside, but not by much. Seeing her like this brought tears to my eyes. She looked so weak and helpless. Just imagining if we didn't make it to her on time...I don't even want to imagine it.

"Come on, we need to let her rest." Ranka said.

I nodded, still looking at Haruhi for a little longer before turning around to leave, but before I could take a step, someone grabbed my hand. I turned and looked down and saw it was Haruhi, looking up at me tiredly.

"Please...stay…"

I looked over at Ranka, silently asking if he was ok with her request. He just smiled and gave me a nod before closing the door, leaving Haruhi and me alone. I turned back to her and knelt down next to her. She was hugging my arm for warmth as if she let it go, she would die. Which scarily could happen. I could feel that her clothes were still wet and were probably one of the main reasons why she was still shivering.

"Haruhi," I whispered to her, trying to get her attention, "where do you keep your clothes?"

She didn't respond to me, probably not being able to hear me from the chattering of her teeth.

I sighed and looked around her room; it couldn't be that hard to find clothes in this tiny so called room. I looked back at Haruhi and saw that she fell asleep by the warmth of my arm. I carefully got out of her grip and got up, then began looking around the room for her clothes.

Minutes passed and I was beginning to grow frustrated when I couldn't find her clothes. They weren't in the closet, weren't in the drawer, not anywhere around the room. Where the hell could she have put her freakin clothes? Her room was smaller than my bathroom; there were barely any places where she couldn't put her clothes!

I sighed defeated, sliding my back down the wall so I was sitting on the floor. I rubbed my temples, feeling a headache coming on. I was really considering getting Kaoru to lend me his shirt for her to wear because mine was still wet.

I groaned and opened my eyes, looking back over to Haruhi when I noticed something peeking out from under one of her dressers. I looked at it confused before making my way over to the dresser. I knelt down and pulled a sleeve of a shirt out from under the dresser that was tangled up in a huge pile of other clothes. I sweat dropped seeing the mountain of clothes I pulled out. Wow, she must be a lot more lazier than I thought.

Putting her laziness aside, I grabbed what seemed like the warmest shirt and pants then went back over to her.

"Ok, so I got some warm clothes for you. All we need to do now is," a dark blush formed on my face, "...is to change you out of your wet clothes."

I stared down at her and gulped before taking the covers off of her. Immediately after the covers left her body she began shivering again.

I took in a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling. "Ok, I can do this. Just try…" I gulped again. "Just try not to look at her while changing her."

I let out a deep breath before looking down. I grabbed Haruhi's shirt and without looking at her, lifted it over her head and threw it to the side. I then reached to take off her pants when my eyes caught a glimpse of her body. I stared in awe at how gorgeous she was. Her porcelain white skin and the curvage of her hips were so…

I shook my head and looked away from her again as another blush appeared on my face. There was no time to think like that, I had to finish changing her. I slipped off her pants quickly and put the dry pair on before grabbing her dry shirt and slipped it carefully over her head. Now the last thing I had to do was...to take off her wet bra…

I'm not a girl, but I've seen a bra before, though I've never taken one off before. I knew there was a hook on the back, so I guess if I unhooked that, I could slip her bra off.

I took in another deep breath and held it in as I got on my hands and knees and hovered over her. I gently lifted her up and reached my hand under her shirt and felt around her back until I felt the hook of her bra. My blush grew even darker as my fingers grasped around the hook. It took me a couple tries, but I finally got the bra to unhook.

I let out the breath I was holding in and slipped her bra off carefully and flung it to the side without a second thought. I sighed out of relief that I was finally done changing her and was about to get off her when her arms sudden wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me close to her.

If it was even possible my blush grew even darker, making my face look like it was on fire. I lightly patted her arm to try and get her attention.

"Haruhi," I whispered, but loud enough for her to hear me, "I can't move, your arms are around me."

"Don't leave me." She said tiredly. "You're so warm."

I looked down at her sadly, then huffed, blowing a piece of my bangs out of my face. "Alright I'll stay with you. I just need to...get out of my wet clothes."

I peeled her arms off of me and stood up. I didn't want to undress, but if I stayed in my wet clothes it would take a lot longer to warm her up. I stripped off my clothes until I was just in my pants, then I slowly got into the bed with her, a warm blush still on my face.

"Al-Alright Haruhi, all you need to do is-"

Before I could finish she wrapped her arms tightly around my torso, putting her face in my chest. I first stiffened by her touch, but I soon calmed down and wrapped my arms around her, turning up my body heat.

* * *

 **Kaoru**

Kaoru sat at the table in the living room, drumming his fingers on it impatiently. He didn't know anything about Haruhi, but he knew that she was really important to his brother, even if she did break his heart. He looked over at Ranka and saw him pacing back and forth in front of his daughter's door, biting his nails on one hand nervously.

"Hey," Kaoru said, making Ranka stop and look over at him, "try not to worry. With Hikaru there she'll be fine."

"I know that I shouldn't be this worried because his powers will keep her warm. It's just," he sighed and crossed his arms over his chest as he looked over at Haruhi's door nervously, "I'm her father. It's my job to be worried. After her mother passed away I've been even more protective of her, trying to keep her safe, but I failed that, like how I failed to keep my wife safe…"

"I highly doubt that she thinks you failed." Ranka looked back at Kaoru as he continued. "I know that we just met, but from what my brother's told me and from what I'm seeing now, you are a great father. I've seen some bad parents when I traveled to another kingdom or even in our kingdom. They don't care what happens to their kids, they will disown their kids for something so stupid. I know you're nothing like that...I don't think I can say the same about my parents though…"

"What do you mean by that?" Ranka asked.

Kaoru sighed and put his head in his hand. "I know that our parents love and care for us, it's just that we're princes. If we make the king and queen look bad they might disown us. That's what other royal families did in other kingdoms."

"Well, those people aren't your parents. I've seen how your parents treat you when you guys go out for festivals, and I can tell they truly love you."

"The thing I don't understand though is why do they have to keep Hikaru hidden away. I know that he has powers, but that doesn't mean we have to hide him away in the castle and act like he doesn't exist when people visit."

Now Ranka was the one who was starting to feel pity. Kaoru didn't know the real reason why his brother had to be locked up. He probably also didn't notice that he and his brother were the only pair of twins in the kingdom. Their parents probably kept quiet about that so they wouldn't start conflict, but if he didn't find out soon, his reaction might be a lot worse when he's crowned king.

"Prince Kaoru…"

Kaoru looked back over to Ranka but before he could continue they heard footsteps running up the stairs and make their way to the living room.

Ranka glared at them. "What are you doing here Tamaki?"

"I heard from some towns folk that they saw Haruhi on a palace horse racing towards the bakery," he rolled up his sleeve with a stern expression on his face as he made his way over to Haruhi's room, "and when I saw the black palace horse outside. I knew exactly who it was."

* * *

 **Hikaru**

Haruhi's shivering had died down a lot. She was still hugging me to remain warm, but her grip loosened when her shivering lessened. I looked down at her and saw that she had her eyes closed. She looked so peaceful now and the color of her face was coming back to normal.

I smiled and put my lips to the hop of her head as I closed my eyes. She was going to survive, thank God.

I remained where I was for a couple minutes until I heard footsteps coming towards the room. I thought it was Ranka coming to check on his daughter so I separated from her a bit so we wouldn't be as close.

Soon the door burst open, scaring me and waking Haruhi up. I looked behind me and saw a furious Tamaki standing at the door, glaring daggers at me.

Shit...

* * *

 **Hey guys I'm really sorry for the month long wait, I've been really busy. I had to update my other stories** _Asylum_ **and** _Coroner,_ **then I got into some drama in school with some (now former) friends, it's really stupid so I'll spare you the details. Then I'm in a play for our senior year and we're preforming it next month so I've been busy with that.**

 **So I'm sorry if this chapter isn't the best (mostly because they're side chapters), but I'll try to make the others a lot better when it gets back on track. Which hopefully will be in the next chapter or two. Thanks you all for reading and reviewing if I'm late updating, I really appreciate it, please F &R. Until next time.-HH1957**


	13. Chapter 13

I gulped as his jaw tightened; rage filled his eyes as he stared down at me, shirtless, laying next to Haruhi as she had her arms wrapped around my waist. I gently unwrapped her arms from around me and sat up, holding up my hands to him as if he was a wild animal that I was trying not to provoke as I slowly stood up.

"Tamaki, I know this looks bad, but let me explain."

"I know exactly what you're doing!" Tamaki hissed as he marched up towards me, causing me to back up towards the wall. "You're trying to cast your cursed magic on her so you can try and steal her back." He put his face up to mine, baring his teeth in rage. "Well, I won't let that happen!"

"What are you talking about? I'm not trying to-"

"Don't act dumb!" He hissed. "Your act won't work on me this time, and I will do everything in my power to keep Haruhi safe. Even if you're a prince or not."

I gulped again; he wasn't going to back down. Even if I tried to explain myself, he wasn't going to listen. I looked back over towards Haruhi and saw that she was beginning to shiver again. I had to get back to her, and quick. I didn't want to hurt Tamaki, but Haruhi was in dire need of me right now.

I looked back at Tamaki. "I promise I'll explain everything if you just let me get back over to her."

"And you do what; continue to put your curse on her?" His glare hardened. "Like I would ever let that happen!"

I looked back over at Haruhi and saw her shivering has gotten worse, I could almost hear her teeth chatting, that's how bad it was. I had to get to her now. I put a hand on Tamaki's chest, making him glance down at it then looked back at me.

"I'm sorry."

But before I could use my powers to push him away.

"Hey!"

Tamaki and I looked over to where the voice was coming from and saw Kaoru by the door, glaring at Tamaki.

"If you lay a finger on my brother, I swear to God I will have you thrown into the dungeon until you rot!" His hissed, his words like venom.

"Bu-But," he slightly flinched as Kaoru's glare hardened; making him know that he was serious.

"Hi...Hikaru…"

Everyone looked over towards the faint voice and Haruhi, who was struggling to keep warm. Her body was still shaking uncontrollably and her skin still had a faint pale tint to it. She was getting worse.

I looked up at Tamaki with pleading eyes. "Please let me go to her. If I don't she could die. I promise I'll explain everything to you later."

Tamaki looked at me unsure, then looked back over at Haruhi in concern. Seeing her in that much pain hurt him, and he felt so useless that he couldn't do anything to help. He grumbled under his breath and took a step away from me.

"Fine," he grumbled, "go."

"Thank you so much." I said before running back over to Haruhi. I put her back in my arms and began warming her up again. Tamaki and Kaoru watched as they saw Haruhi's shivering began to calm down.

"You two," Ranka whispered with a bit of sternness as he poked his head into the room, "let's leave them alone for awhile."

"But-"

Ranka glared at Tamaki, making his protest go silent. "Now!"

Tamaki gulped and listened to Ranka's directions so he wouldn't anger him any further, keeping his head low as he walked out of the room. Kaoru looked at Haruhi one last time before following Tamaki out.

* * *

 **Tamaki**

All three of the remaining males sat at the dinner table in an awkward silence, sipping on the cups of tea that Ranka brought out for them. Tamaki looked up from his drink to the two guys in front of him and was greeted by their harsh glares, which made him look back down at his reflection in his tea.

They've been sitting like this for almost fifteen minutes and it was starting to get extremely uncomfortable. He traced the rim of the rim of his mug with his fingers before glancing back up at the men across from him.

"So...how's everybody doing?" Tamaki asked, trying to break the awkward silence.

"Shut up!" Ranka growled, making Tamaki flinch and look back down.

"So-Sorry," Tamaki stuttered nervously, "I was tr-trying to break the awkward silence…"

"You don't just barge into another person's house like that," Ranka yelled, ignoring what Tamaki said. Kaoru just sat back and dunk the tea bag in and out of his cup, pretending to not be listening, "and you threaten a prince of all people?! God Tamaki, I knew you were an idiot, but this is beyond ridiculous! You literally could've gotten yourself killed if they really wanted to!"

"I'm sorry," he said again, looking back up at them, "but can you blame me? After what happened during my birthday."

"And what exactly happened?" Tamaki and Ranka turned and looked over to Kaoru, who was still dunking the tea bag in his tea. "From what I heard, nothing bad happened." He brought his tea to his lips as he gave Tamaki a subtle look of disdain. "Well, nothing my brother did anyway."

"You weren't there, a rock was coming down at us and-"

"And what?!" Kaoru interrupted him, causing Tamaki to flinch again as he began to feel small as he stared back at the livid prince. "He used his powers to save her from getting killed! Yeah, some monster he is!"

Tamaki felt like he shrunk five times smaller as the Prince of Avalon was yelling down at him as if he were some kind of peasant...and at that moment, he actually felt like one. All he was trying to do was protect Haruhi from danger, why doesn't anyone else understand that?!

Ranka sighed, he knew that Tamaki's action was out of love, but he just did it in a stupid way. Like he usually did.

"Tamaki, I think we both understand that your feeling to protect Haruhi is out of love, but you just can't barge into someone's house without knowing the circumstances. There's a very good reason why they're here."

Tamaki listened as Ranka told him about the event that happened. As hearing about Haruhi falling into the lake his heart dropped and his body turned cold as if he fell into the frozen lake as well. Just imagining her lifeless body drifting down to the bottom of the lake. It made his heart ache that he couldn't be there to protect her, like he promised while they were dating and continued to keep while they decided to just be friends.

As Ranka finished telling Tamaki about what happened, he just sat there in complete silence, trying to process everything that was told to him.

"I...I don't know how to take this all in." Tamaki finally spoke up. "I couldn't even imagine something like that ever happened to her."

"Well, it did." Kaoru said, his tone a lot calmer than before. He began fiddling with the tea bag again as he spoke, not taking his eyes off his reflection in his tea. "We were lucky that I convinced Hikaru to go out riding, because if we didn't…  
Kaoru looked up at Tamaki, finishing his sentence to him without using any word.

Tamaki looked back down, rubbing his index finger on this mug as he tried to keep his emotions from bursting out of him. "I'm sorry Ranka. I didn't know."

"It's not me you have to apologize to."

Tamaki looked up at him a bit shocked, then looked over to Kaoru and gave him a solemn look. "Prince Kaoru, I'm sor-"

"Not him you idiot!" Ranka hissed. He rubbed his temples, feeling a migraine start to form. "Yes, you need to apologize to Prince Kaoru, but for a different reason. I was talking about Hikaru."

As if on cue, the door to Haruhi's room slowly opened and Hikaru's head poked out of the room, he faced towards the group. Ranka quickly got up at the sight of him and rushed over to him.

"How is she?" He asked, concern about his daughter in his voice. "Has her temperature gone back to normal?"

Hikaru's face was blank for a bit, then a soft smile appeared on his face. "Yeah, I believe so." Ranka let out a sigh of relief that he was holding in. "I've gotten her to stop shivering and her skin is back to its original color."

Ranka smiled and chuckled a bit, feeling tears welled up in his eyes. "Thank God."

"Can I ask you to do a favor for me?"

Ranka nodded, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Yes, I'll do anything for you for saving my daughter."

"Can you make a bowl of soup? I want to give Haruhi something warm to eat for when she wakes up."

Ranka nodded. "Yes, I'll go heat up some leftover soup I had for lunch."

Ranka hurried to the kitchen to go reheat the soup. Tamaki looked from Hikaru to Kaoru, catching his glare. Indicating that he should go up and apologize to his brother his brother right now.

Tamaki sighed and slowly got up before making his way over to Hikaru. Hikaru notice him coming over and faced his direction, but Tamaki tried his best to avoid making eye contact. He just stood there a bit awkwardly, with his hands in his pockets.

"Hikaru...I'm sorry…" He looked up at him, meeting his eyes. "I'm sorry about how I handled this situation. I didn't know what happened."

Hikaru was silent for a bit, making Tamaki start to feel nervous, but as the smile appeared on the prince's face, Tamaki felt a heavy weight off his chest.

"It's ok. I fully understand your reaction. A person that you thought you knew suddenly has powers. I would be a little freaked out too." His smile somewhat faltered. "But I'd be lying to say that it didn't hurt that my friends turned on me, thinking that I was suddenly evil because I had powers."

Tamaki began to feel guilty as he saw how hurt Hikaru was. He couldn't believe he actually thought that his friend could be like Kuro from the folktale. He felt so stupid.

"Again, I'm very sorry," Tamaki said again, "and I'll also tell everyone else in our group that you're not a bad guy."

Hikaru smiled. "Thanks Tamaki, that means a lot."

"The soup is ready." Ranka yelled, speed walking back into the living room with oven mitts, carrying a bowl of soup. He bumped Tamaki out of the way so he could be in front of Hikaru.

"Ok, so since I was in such a rush I didn't have enough time to grab another set of pot holders. So I can set this down on the table and-"

"It's fine." Hikaru said as he took the steaming bowl from Ranka. "I promise you that it won't hurt me."

Ranka just stared in shock as Hikaru stepped back into the room. "Ok…"

Hikaru gave him a small smile before closing the door. After the shock wore off of Ranka, he went back over to the table where Prince Kaoru and Tamaki, who decided to go back to the table after Ranka pushed him down, and sat with them.

There was an awkward silence for a bit, nobody really knowing what to say. Kaoru looked over at Tamaki, who was adding some more sugar to his tea.

"Thank you."

Tamaki looked up confused. "Huh, for what?"

"For forgiving my brother my brother. I know that really meant a lot at him."

"Well, I didn't really have a choice."

"Yeah, but," Kaoru smiled at him, "I know a real apology when I see one, trust me. You're good with me."

Tamaki smiled, trying his best not to let his happiness explode out of him. He actually was now on the good side of the recognized Prince of the Avalon.

"But, just don't do it again, or I will actually throw you into the dungeon."

Tamaki laughed, but soon grew quiet when he saw that Kaoru wasn't laughing along.

"R-Really?"

Kaoru took a sip from his tea as he looked away from Tamaki, making him gulp and look back down at his cup. As the cup left Kaoru's lips, a small smirk was exposed. He checked off a box in his mental checklist for scaring Tamaki shitless for payback for what he did to his brother.

* * *

 **Hey guys, I'm really sorry for the really long update. I had really bad writers block and began kinda writing more with my other story _Coroner,_ but I now mostly gotten out of the hole. I'm going to take more time writing my other story for a bit because I just have a lot of ideas floating around for it at the moment, but I promise I'll update this story soon again, please F &R. Until next time.-HH1957 **


	14. Chapter 14

**Haruhi**

Haruhi's eyes slowly fluttered open by the sound of her door closing. Soft footsteps quietly made their way over to her. She turned to the person and saw Hikaru place a bowl of some food on her dresser next to her bed.

 _What was he doing here?_

She had a feeling that she should've been scared to see him after what happened during the hike...but for some reason she didn't. She actually felt safe around him, not really knowing why.

Then all the memories of what happened finally hit her. How she fell into a lake and even after everything she done to him he jumped in and saved her. A feeling of guilt washed over her as she stared up at him.

Hikaru caught her stare and smiled at her. "You're awake. How are you feeling?" He asked, his voice soothing.

Haruhi wrapped her blanket tighter around her. "I could be better, but I'm a lot warmer than before."

"Well that's good." He said. "Are you hungry? Your dad made soup."

Haruhi nodded and Hikaru grabbed the bowl of soup, sitting next to her before handing it to her. She took the bowl into her hands but as soon as Hikaru let go of it her hands began shaking too hard for her to hold the bowl properly. He looked at her a bit concerned before taking the bowl back from her.

"I'll feed you, uh...if you don't mind that is?"

Haruhi shook her head. "I don't mind."

He helped feed her for a couple minutes, bring a spoonful of soup to her lips. If she had to be honest it was a little embarrassing that she had to have someone feeding her, but she also didn't completely hate it that he was taking care of her. Haruhi rewrapped the blanket around herself, trying to get her trembling under controlled. She could sense that Hikaru was hesitant of speaking and she didn't blame him. What she did to him was unforgivable. He's been so nice to her and everything was so great in their relationship, but she just dropped him instantly...like he meant nothing to her.

"I'm sorry." Haruhi whispered, causing Hikaru to look up at her.

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry." She repeated, looking up at him with doleful eyes. "I shouldn't have left you because of your powers. I should've known that you weren't evil. I was just...scared."

He stared at her quietly for a couple seconds, which made her grow nervous. What if he didn't accept her apology? She wouldn't blame him if he didn't. She was a terrible girlfriend for just dropping her boyfriend, but instead of being mad at her, he just smiled at her. Which surprised her.

"And you had every right to be." He said, cupping her cheek and used his thumb to wipe a tear from her face. "When do you come across a guy with powers?" His smile turned sad. "But I would be lying if I said I wasn't hurt, but I understand. I just don't understand why you guys would suddenly think that I would be evil."

That's right, Kyouya mentioned that he probably didn't know about the whole elder twins are forbidden. If he did find out he would probably feel guilty that he's the only elder twin in the whole kingdom that wasn't sentenced to death, or have an explosive reaction to his parents for lying to him and only sparing him because he's their kid.

"I'm sorry." She apologized again.

"Stop apologizing." He chuckled. "I promise that it's fine."

"But still, I shouldn't have-"

He interrupted her with a kiss, catching Haruhi off guard. He pulled away and gave her a loving smile.

"I told you, it's fine." He breathed, rubbing my thumb against her cheek. "Stop apologizing."

They just stared into each other's eyes silently for a bit longer before Haruhi leaned in and captured his lips with hers again. At first the kiss was sweet, his soft lips gently on hers, but the heat from his body was driving her insane. It might've been because she was still cold but she wanted to be closer to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, bringing him closer. Almost having her body flush against his, and he didn't seem to mind at all.

The kiss grew more heated as she tightened her grip around his neck. She just noticed that he wasn't wearing a shirt but didn't seem to care at all as she just deepened the kiss. His hands began traveling up her back under her shirt, causing her to gasp at the touch of his warm hands on her freezing skin.

Before the kiss could get too heated there was a knock at the door, causing them to freeze. They separated and faced towards the door.

Hikaru cleared his throat. "Yes?"

"Is Haruhi awake?" Ranka asked behind the door. "I would really like to see her."

They looked back at each other, Hikaru bit his lip, not really wanting to stop, but they both knew they had to.

"Yeah," he finally answered, "she just got up. I'm just waiting for her to fully wake up so she'll be prepared to talk to you."

"Alright, just tell me when she's ready."

Hikaru didn't respond as he just continued to stare into Haruhi's eyes. He laid his forehead against hers.

"How are you feeling now?"

"Well, I'm no longer freezing." She chuckled.

Hikaru laughed softly before cupping her face again. He smiled sweetly at her. "So, are we back together now?"

She matched his smile as she leaned into his hand. "Hikaru, we were never broken up in the first place."

His smile widened and he leaned back in and kissed her, which she happily gave back in return.

* * *

 **Hikaru**

A few months have passed and everything has been perfect. Haruhi and my relationship was stronger than ever and now Kaoru even started hanging out with the group whenever he was free. Which was quite a lot since he was still mostly free from his royal duties, but some days he had to stay back with mom and dad (to his dismay) and discuss about the future of the kingdom and the allies, and unfortunately one of those days were today.

Haruhi was cleaning up the last of the dishes as I moved the curtain out of the way and smiled at her before making my way over to her. I wrapped my arms around her waist and laid my head on her shoulder.

"Are you almost ready to go?" I asked, placing a kiss on her cheek.

Haruhi smiled and leaned into my embrace. "Yeah, I just need to finish these dishes. Then we can go."

My smile widened and I kissed her cheek again before unwrapping my arms from around her waist. I waited for her to finish up the dishes as I sat up on the counter. At first I was very patient, but as ten minutes slowly passed I began to become restless. I sighed and began fiddling with some of the cooking utensils that were in a cup.

Haruhi turned off the water and wiped her hands on her apron before turning to me. She noticed what I was fiddling with and glared.

"Hikaru," she said, causing me to look over at her. She walked over to me and took the measuring spoons out of my hands, putting them back where I got them. "I understand you're not used to waiting for people, but you can't just fiddle with other people's things. Especially since last time you froze and broke my rolling pin."

I rolled my eyes, but smiled at her. "That was only one time and I just wanted to see if it was true that if you freeze something that it becomes more fragile."

"Well it does, and now I have to buy a new one."

"Yeah, that's one of the reasons why we're going to the markets, right?" I said matter of factly.

Haruhi's glare hardened, trying to make it look as if she was angrier as she put her hands on her hips. I cocked an eyebrow at her, knowing fully well that it was an act. Her facade soon fell and she began to laugh.

"God, I hate you."

"The feeling's mutual." I smirked.

Haruhi took off her apron and put it on the hanger, dusting off the remainder of the flour. She then grabbed a bag and walked over to me as I hopped off the counter. As I went to grab for her hand we heard the chimes from the door ring and a familiar voice call out Haruhi's name.

"Haruhi!"

I frowned at the sound of the person's voice and we both faced towards them as they walked past the curtain.

"Tamaki? What are you doing here?" Haruhi asked.

"Kyouya kicked me out of his house because he said I was being too much of a burden while he was trying to study. Is there anyway that I could hang out with you guys today?" He asked.

"Can't you hang out with Honey and Mori?" I asked, not trying to hide the fact that his presence was bothering me, causing Haruhi to glare at me. But Tamaki didn't seem to notice.

"They're doing their knight training all day. So I wouldn't be able to talk to them so it wouldn't be worth going there."

"Can't you just-"

"Sure, you can hang out with us today." Haruhi said, making me look over at her surprised. "We're going to the markets, so as long as you help us shop you can tag along."

Tamaki smiled brightly. "I will, thank you." He took the bag from Haruhi and began walking toward the door. "I'll meet you guys outside."

When he left the kitchen and was fully out of earshot I glared over at Haruhi.

"Why the hell did you invite him? This day was supposed to be just about us."

Haruhi rolled her eyes as she grabbed a couple more bags. "We are just going to the markets to get some items. It's not a big deal that he tags along. Also he wouldn't stop complaining if we didn't let him come, but if it makes you feel better, if it was an actual date I would've said no."

I huffed, running my hand through my hair. "Fine, whatever." I then smirked and leaned down next to her ear. "But tonight we're having a real date, and you're all mine." I purred.

A warm blush tinted her cheeks and she smiled. "I would really like that."

I gave her a quick kiss on the lips and put my hood up before grabbing her hand and walking towards the door to meet up with Tamaki.

* * *

"That looks like everything." Haruhi said as she looked at the list of items she made.

"Uh, Haruhi," Tamaki said, drawing our attention. He had his arms full with bags filled with the top with items, "why am I carrying most of the bags."

I smirked at him. "It's because you were a last minute guest and because of that you get to carry most of the bags."

"That seems hardly fair…"

"Then how about this? It's payback for what happened a couple months ago when you threatened me in Haruhi's room when I was trying to warm her up."

Tamaki's month formed a line as he stared at me, then readjusted the bags in his arms. "Fine, I'll carry them…"

My smirk remained on my face and we all began walking back to the bakery. We took our time, just in case an item caught our attention at a vendor's stand. As Haruhi was looking at a snack stand, seeing if there was anything that all three of us would like (mostly me) I began to get a strange feeling. I couldn't really explain it...but it felt strangely familiar.

I then suddenly felt someone grab my left shoulder, causing me to jump. I turned around and faced them. A tall man in a hooded robe stood there. His eyes were covered by his bright blonde hair that was under his hood, but what really caught my eye was his necklace. It was shaped as a crescent moon with a glowing purple jewel in the center. I've seen that symbol before, but I don't know where...but it made me uncomfortable.

Tamaki finally noticed the man and turned to us, but once he saw him his face immediately paled.

"Neko-Nekozawa?!" Tamaki stuttered nervously. "Wh-What are you doing here?!"

I looked over at Tamaki briefly before facing the hooded stranger again. Tamaki must've known him from somewhere, but he seemed terrified by his presence. Which was starting to get me nervous.

Nekozawa seemed to ignore Tamaki's question and tilted his head as if he was studying me. Even though I couldn't see them I could feel his eyes look over my body. I just stood there uncomfortably, not really knowing what to do. I decided to ask what he wanted but before I could he finally spoke.

"I never thought I would see you outside the castle walls, Prince Hikaru."

* * *

 **Hey guys I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. I know it's been a month long wait but I had writers block so I decided to update my other story _Coroner_ because all my ideas in my head were for that story, but now I have an idea where this story is heading.**

 **Thank you all for waiting patiently, please Favorite, Follow & Review. Until next time.-HH1957**


	15. Chapter 15

I just stared at the man in horror...did he just say "Prince Hikaru?" That couldn't be it, no one outside the castle knew of my existence besides my friends. I tried to open my mouth to respond to him, but nothing came out. My mouth felt dry, making any words trying to come out difficult.

Tamaki noticed how I was acting, he then looked over at Nekozawa. He was terrified of him, but he knew that I needed help. He gulped before taking a deep breath and began laughing.

"Oh Nekozawa, you're so funny. You haven't changed one bit since you were in school with us." Tamaki laughed, causing us to look over to him. "Prince Hikaru? I think you're thinking of Prince Kaoru, there is definitely no other prince in the kingdom. Also Prince Kaoru would never hang out with people like us. This guy is just a simple villager like us."

Nekozawa just stared at Tamaki laughing as if he was an idiot before turning back to me. He reached over to me. I tried to move but my body wouldn't let me somehow. I could feel my body, but when I tried to move any of my limbs they wouldn't budge. He moved my hood back a bit so my hair was exposed and he was the only one could see my face, which caused Tamaki to stop laughing instantly and grew panicked as he watched Nekozawa take a small portion of my bangs into his hand, looking at the dark color. He then looked at my face, a creepy smile appeared on his face that sent a chill down my spine.

"As I thought, I was right."

Haruhi turned away from the snack stand after she paid the vender. Her eyes immediately saw Nekozawa in front of me and a cowering Tamaki, but she grew pale when she saw that my face was exposed to him and had my hair in his hands.

She ran back over to us and used her body to shield me from Nekozawa, causing him to let go of my hair.

"What do you want Nekozawa?" Haruhi asked sternly, a glare on her face.

Nekozawa looked down at Haruhi who stood her ground in front of me. He looked from her to me a few times before another creepy smile came onto his face.

"I can sense a romance happening here. Am I correct?"

A small blush tinted Haruhi's cheeks, but she didn't let that affect her glare. "What are you doing here Nekozawa?" She asked again.

"I sensed a powerful presents for the past couple of months around the village. Not really knowing what it was so I used my dark magic to help guide me to where it was coming from," he looked up at me, "and I finally found them."

My eyes grew even more horrified when he said the words "Black Magic." That's where I knew the symbol on his necklace from. Even though black magic was technically forbidden in Avalon my parents allowed only a few people to practice it after I was born. My parents never told me why, but I had a horrible history with black magic when I was younger and I'm terrified of it.

Haruhi felt me tense up from behind her. She looked at me and saw the terrified look I had on my face while looking at Nekozawa's necklace. She then grabbed my arm and tried to pull me away.

"Come on, let's go." She said, but I didn't budge. She looked up at me concerned. "Hikaru?"

"Oh sorry," Nekozawa said, causing Haruhi to look back over at him, "that's my fault."

He snapped his fingers and I was suddenly able to move again. I ripped my arm out of Haruhi's grasp, which caused her to gasp in shock by the sudden action, and I took a few steps back until I fell on my backside. Still looking at Nekozawa in fear.

"St-Stay away from me!" I said terrified as I used my arms to continue to move away from him. He seemed to ignore what I said as he began making his way over to me. "I said stay away!"

I lifted my arm and tried to use my powers to push him back, but he just used his arm to deflect it. I grew even more terrified of him. No one has been able to deflect my powers before. I went to conjure up a flame, but as my palm began to turn orange he stopped in his tracks.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." He said. "You wouldn't want the villagers knowing the powers you possess now, do you?"

I looked at the villagers around us, seeming as if they didn't see us. I quickly got rid of the flame before anyone could notice it.

"Where are they?" Tamaki panicked, looking around. "They were here just a minute ago."

"I don't know," Haruhi began to worry, "but I think Nekozawa took him somewhere."

I looked away from them and back at Nekozawa. "Why can't they see us?"

"I put up a barrier around us to turn us invisible to the people around us. I didn't want them to see your face and powers."

Face? I put my hand to my head and noticed my hood had fallen off. It must've fallen off when I fell. "Wait, if you put the barrier then why did you tell me that if I used my powers the villagers could notice."

"Well, even though I could deflect your powers, they would bounce off the barrier until they hit one of us. You may not get hurt by it but I would." He walked over to me and squatted down next to me. "I'm not here to hurt you Hikaru." He reassured. "I'm here because I know that you're a cursed twin and I wanted to help you remain safe."

"Cursed twin? What do you mean by cursed twin?"

Nekozawa seemed shocked by what I said, "You mean you don't know?"

"Know what?"

Nekozawa remained shocked for a bit until a frown formed on his face. He then grabbed my hood, causing me to flinch as he put it back over my head.

"Come with me back to my shop. I would like to show you some information that I think you need to know." He stood up and offered me a hand to help me up, which I just stared at uncertain. "I promise I won't hurt you. You can trust me."

I just stayed where I was for a moment, staring at his hand before slowly grabbing it and he helped me up. He then removed the barrier around us, causing Tamaki to shriek by our sudden reappearance.

"Follow me." He looked over at Tamaki and Haruhi. "All of you."

"Wait, where are you going?" Haruhi asked.

"To my shop. I'll explain everything when we get there."

As Nekozawa began to walk towards the direction of his shop, Haruhi grabbed my hand and looked up at me.

"You don't have to do this. We can just go back to the bakery."

I continued to look at Nekozawa as he walked away. What did he mean when he called me the cursed twin? Could it explain the reason why I have my powers? But my parents definitely would've mentioned it if I was actually cursed. They wouldn't keep something that important away from me...right? I really was terrified of black magic, but I really needed to know about this "cursed twin" thing.

I gulped before squeezing Haruhi's hand lightly. "No, I want to know more about what he said to me while we were under the barrier." I squeezed her hand tighter. "I have to know."

Haruhi grew concerned, worried of what Nekozawa had told me but nodded and began following Nekozawa with me.

"Wa-Wait? Are we really going to follow him?" Tamaki stuttered nervously.

When no one responded to him he knew what the answer was and gulped before reluctantly following us.

After a short walk we arrived at what looked like a dilapidated shack. On the outside the wood look rotted and had moss on the bottom portion of the shack. The door was cracked and had the same moon symbol that Nekozawa had on his necklace. It gave off a creepy vibe that didn't sit well with me, but it looked like it didn't set well with Tamaki either because he was trembling in fear as he stared at the shop.

It took a bit for Nekozawa to open the door, but after a few forceful pushed with his shoulder as he turned the doorknob the door finally opened, followed by a cloud of dust from the door opening.

Nekozawa looked over at us. "Excuse the mess. I haven't had enough time to clean up in a while."

As he walked into the shop Tamaki gulped, readjusting the bags in his hands as he began to feel his palms sweat.

"Are we really going in there?" Tamaki asked, drawing my and Haruhi's attention. "This place is creepy and I don't want to risk getting a curse cast on me if I say the wrong thing."

"Then you can stay outside by yourself if you want," I said, looking back at the open door, "but I really need to get answers now."

"B-But, being out here by myself is even scarier…"

I just ignored him and entered the shop with Haruhi and Tamaki, who decided it would be safer for himself if he came along with us.

The shop looked a lot better on the inside than the outside, but it was still creepy. It was dark even with the lights on, there were items hanging from the ceiling that looked like fur, skin, and bones that looked like it came from certain animals that I couldn't distinguish. Bottles of what looked like ingredients and potions on multiple shelves around the store. There were also large bookcases on every wall filled with the top with books.

Nekozawa was looking through the bookshelf to our left when I decided to finally ask him a question.

"Nekozawa if I may ask, how do you know of my existence?" I asked. "No one outside the castle beside my small group of friends know about me."

"My family is the only family in the whole kingdom that is allowed to practice black magic." He said, not looking over at me. "After you were born your parents hired my father to help keep your powers under control. I never met you before, but my father always spoke about you every time he came home from the castle."

I gulped, I knew who his father was. I remember him coming to the castle when I was younger, mostly when I was trying to gain control of my powers, and I remember being terrified of him. He would bring items that possessed black magic and if my powers grew too powerful for me to control…

I rubbed my wrists subconsciously, trying to suppress the memories as best as I could as another question came into mind.

"Wait, why would they have hired your dad when I was born? I didn't start getting my powers until I was around three."

Nekozawa didn't respond to my question but instead grabbed a large book, blowing the dust off of it then made his way over to a table and placed the book on it. He then pulled out the chair from the table before looking at me.

"You'll find all the answers to your questions in here." He said as he put his hand on the book.

I bit my lip, I really wanted to know what he meant about the "cursed twin," but I was really nervous. What if it was something bad? If I was this "cursed twin" why would my parents keep it from me if it wasn't bad?

I went to go walk towards the table but Haruhi grabbed my arm to stop me. I looked down at her and saw the concerned expression on her face.

"You don't have to do this Hikaru." She said. "We can just leave and go back to the bakery and go on that date you offered to take me on."

I looked back over at Nekozawa, who was patiently waiting for me then back at Haruhi.

"I'm sorry but...I really need to know what he meant by calling me a cursed twin."

"Wait, he told you that you were a cursed twin?"

I nodded. "Yeah, he told me when we were in the barrier and was shocked that I knew nothing about it."

"Hikaru, I think it would be the best if you didn't know about the cursed twin. I don't think you'll be able to handle it."

"I have to agree with Haruhi." Tamaki finally spoke up. "I don't think it's a very good idea for you to find out."

"Why?" I asked utterly confused. "If I really am one of them I want to find out. It might explain my powers."

Haruhi grabbed both of my hands, turning me to face her. "Hikaru, we're just trying to protect you. I know you might be confused right not, but I promise you that it's for the best."

I clenched her hands tightly. "But I want to know if I'm this bad person! I have to know!" Haruhi looked at me with morose eyes as I looked away from her. "I'm...I'm sorry, but after what Nekozawa told me and my parents not even mentioning anything to me...I just really need to know if I am really cursed or not."

"He's going to find out sooner or later." Nekozawa said. "His parents have kept it from him long enough. I believe it would be better for us to tell him now instead of the next set of twins being born and having the cursed one killed."

"Wait killed?" I looked over at Nekozawa horrified, then back at Haruhi. "What does he mean by killed?"

She sighed but didn't answer my question. She just looked into my eyes that were a mixture of confusion and horror.

"Hikaru, if you really want to know about the cursed twin, then I won't stop you."

"Haruhi I don't think-"

"It's already too late Tamaki. He's already made up his mind." She said, still looking into my eyes. She then hugged me, which I responded by hugging her back, putting my nose in her hair. "But I want you to know that you're not a bad guy and you'll never be one."

"Thank you." I responded in her hair. I then kissed her head before separating from her and making my way over to Nekozawa.

I took a seat in the chair, staring at the book. I gulped for what felt like the umpteenth time today as I read the title, _The History of Curses_ on the old worn out leather covering.

"Alright, I'm ready."

Nekozawa nodded. The book then suddenly opened by itself and flipped quickly through the pages until it stopped about halfway through the book at a chapter called _Cursed Twins in Avalon_. I took in a deep breath as I turned the page and began reading the history of the curse.

 _Over two hundred years ago a woman named Kana Yamada placed a curse on her twin sisters Hana and Hanako out of jealousy and because of the way they treated her. Kana grew furious and began practicing black magic to get back at them and once she gained enough skill to cast the curse she wanted she placed the curse on her sister. However the curse seemed to backfire because it seemed as if the only one who was cursed was the eldest twin Hana, whose hair grew darker and suddenly developed the power to control plant life. While the younger twin Hanako only had a lock of dark hair similar to her twin's._

 _Soon after the curse was placed twins all over the kingdom that were born the eldest held powers. Kana just meant to cast the curse on her sisters, but thought that because her twin sisters were so horrible that all twins must've been the same._

 _A few years later a set of identical twin boys were born. Kuro the eldest and Aiko the youngest. As Kuro grew up he was tired of Aiko being favorited and after many failed attempts of trying to kill his brother he came up with a plan. He recruited other elder twins who had a similar situation as his and planned on taking over the kingdom. The battle was brutal, killing almost half the kingdom, even some of their own families._

 _Then as it seemed like Kuro and his army were about to win, Aiko and the rest of the kingdom's army went into battle, with the help of black magic so the elder twins' powers couldn't affect them._

 _As Kuro was badly wounded and his army began to fall he fled. He found a witch, who so happened to have placed the curse, and forced her to help him. She saw what they have done to the kingdom and was mortified, but was afraid for own her life and did as he asked and helped him by storing his soul away so his soul could stay alive while his body died._

 _After the war, almost the whole kingdom was destroyed and the king and queen decided that because the attack was from the cursed twins there would be a new law that forbidden them and they were all sentenced to death so nothing like this would happen again._

I grew mortified at the words "put to death" and flipped through the next pages and scanned them and looked at the drawings. Drawing of cruel and painful ways they executed the cursed twins. I started to feel my heart began to pound in my chest as I finally made it to the last page where there was a huge drawing of a twin being decapitated.

I shot up from my chair as I began to hyperventilate and began backing up until my back hit the bookcase, making it rock by my strong impact. Tamaki and Haruhi looked at me worried.

"Hikaru…" Haruhi said as she took a step towards me.

"I'm supposed to be dead." I whispered horrified. "I'm supposed to be fucking dead." I looked over at Haruhi and Tamaki. "Why didn't anyone tell me about this?"

"We were just trying to help protect you Hikaru." Haruhi tried to reassure.

"That's bull shit."

"We're telling the truth Hikaru." Tamaki said. "We knew that if you found out you would react badly to it. We just wanted to keep you away from it as long as possible."

I felt tears burn in my eyes and looked away from them, trying to process everything I just learned today. The fact that if I wasn't the king and queen's son I would've been murdered the day I was born. They only spared me because I was their son. If I wasn't, they would've had me killed in cold blood.

I felt someone grab my trembling hand and saw it was Haruhi.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I stared at her. "Haruhi I…"

"I know Hikaru." She said as she cupped my cheek as tears began trailing down my face.

She wiped away a few tears before hugging me, which I immediately wrapped my arms around her in response, putting my nose in her hair as my body continued trembling.

"I'm sorry to interrupt this precious moment, but I'm not done talking about the curse." Nekozawa said.

"Nekozawa, I really don't think it's a good time." Tamaki said.

"But this is really important and I think it's something he should know."

I didn't say anything, I just moved my eyes over to Tamaki, telling him silently to let Nekozawa speak. He sighed when he got the message and kept quiet.

"What else is there?" I finally asked, keeping my nose in Haruhi's hair.

"You might not like it at first, but I believe it is something important that you need to know." He grabbed another book from the bookshelf and opened it. "Cursed twins do possess a dark power," he read, which made my grip tighten around Haruhi, "however that doesn't mean that they are necessarily evil, but they are stronger in power and in strength than the normal person."

"That must've been the reason why he was able to hold up the bolder that was tumbling towards Haruhi." Tamaki said.

Nekozawa nodded. "That's correct. Like what we were taught, if he wanted to take over the kingdom he could do it with ease."

"But he would never do something like that." Haruhi hissed. "He's not that type of person."

"I never said he was." He responded nonchalantly. "I just said he could if he wanted to." Nekozawa began flipping through the pages again until he paused and stared down at the book in confusion. "Huh, that's strange."

"What is it?" I asked, lifting my head from Haruhi's hair.

"There's a section here that talks about the younger twin, but all the pages are ripped out, how strange." He just shrugged his shoulders and changed the subject. "Hikaru, what are your powers?"

I separated from Haruhi, but kept her close to me. "I have three. Fire, ice, and telekinesis."

His eyes widened from behind his blonde bangs. "You have three?" I nodded. "I never met a cursed twin with more than one. I knew you had two, but three? That's amazing."

"Wait, you met other cursed twins?" Nekozawa nodded, causing me to smile. "So I'm not the only cursed twin alive?"

"Well...not exactly." My smile fell. "All the twins I met were in hiding, coming to me for help. I tried to help them the best I could with my black magic, but I guess it wasn't good enough because they were caught and soon executed. Same with the ones who tried to flee the kingdom."

"Is there any way to stop this?" I asked. "I don't want any more innocent lives killed."

"The only way to stop this is to break the curse."

"Then how do we break the curse?"

"It's...It's complicated." He said. "The only way to break the curse is to defeat Kuro…"

"But...wasn't he already defeated?" Haruhi asked. "Aiko took him out."

"That's what we were all told in the folktale, but in real life Kuro is technically still alive, but just his soul."

Nekozawa pulled out a skeleton key from a small chest on the counter before making his way over to a creepy looking cupboard. He used the key to unlock it, revealing two potion bottles. One bottle was dark as the night sky with a glowing green color surrounding the bottle and the bottle next to it was a similar bottle, but instead of it being dark it was actually white and bright. He looked over at us.

"Meet Kuro and Aiko."

I blinked in confusion. "Wait, I know about Kuro's soul being saved in a bottle, but not Aiko's."

"Neither do I, but I believe now maybe it had the explanation on one of the pages that were ripped out from the book."

I looked at the black bottle, biting my lip. "How do we defeat Kuro?"

"I believe it would be best if you didn't."

"Why?"

"Because, if you want to defeat him he'll have to possess a body of a cursed twin, most likely the most powerful one, and then someone has to defeat him then."

"And because Hikaru is the only cursed twin…" Haruhi looked over at me.

"He would have to possess me…" I finished her sentence.

Nekozawa nodded. "Yes, so I strongly advise for the curse to remain, even though it hurts me to see all these innocent people die. I don't want Avalon to suffer by Kuro's wrath again."

I nodded sadly. "Yeah...that's the best option." I grabbed Haruhi's hand. "If you don't mind I would like to go now."

Nekozawa nodded and let us leave and we began making our way back to the bakery.

* * *

 **Kaoru**

Kaoru drummed his fingers on the table out of boredom. He was starting to get restless. He's been sitting in the same place for the past two hours as his parents discussed which kingdom would be the best to form an alliance with. He was jealous that Hikaru could leave the castle grounds. He felt useless being there, his parents only asked him about three questions since they started. There was really no pointed of him being there.

"Kaoru?" His father called, causing Kaoru to look over at him. "Don't you think it would be best to make an alliance with Aztecia? They may not have the strongest army, but they are loyal to their alliances and will fight alongside us in case a war breaks out."

"Uh yeah, sure." Kaoru said. "That's the best plan."

His father smiled. "Great." He signed the contract for Aztecia before handing it to a guard and telling him to send it to the royal family. "Alright, we're done for today."

"Finally." Kaoru sighed.

"Oh Kaoru," his mother spoke up, "can you go get Hikaru? I want to know what he would like for dinner so I could tell the chiefs."

"Uh…" Kaoru grew nervous. He knew that Hikaru wouldn't be home for a couple more hours. Maybe if he could get his parents to make something he asked he could have enough time to get Hikaru and bring him home. "Mom if you don't mind, could I pick tonight's dinner. I'm really craving some lamb and I know Hikaru would like it too."

"I know that you would love to pick dinner, but Hikaru's been alone all day and I think it would only be fair that he got to pick dinner tonight."

"Hikaru and I have the same taste, so I know he'll like what I want."

"Kaoru," His father said sternly, causing him to look over at him, "get your brother now."

"But…"

His father glared. "That's an order."

Kaoru gulped nervously before standing up. "Yes father."

Kaoru exited the room and began walking to the throne room. He bit the nail of his thumb nervously. What was he going to do? Hikaru was most likely still with Haruhi. He couldn't go out and get him, there was no time. He also couldn't pretend to be Hikaru because it wouldn't work because their hair color was different. It didn't even work when they were kids if they hid their hair so why would it work now?

"Damn it. What am I going to do?" He whispered to himself. "If mom and dad find out he left the castle grounds I don't know how they'll react, but I know it wouldn't be good."

He began pacing once he made it to the throne room, trying to come up with a plan, but as the minutes went by his mind was still blank. He thought about asking Naomi for help but he didn't want to risk getting her in trouble.

"Kaoru?" His mother's voice came up from behind him, making him jump. "Have you found Hikaru yet?"

"Uh, ye-yeah." He stuttered nervously. "He told me he was fine with lamb and went to go for a ride around the estate."

"I still would like to speak with him. I haven't seen him all day. Could you go out and bring him back?"

"Um, Kn-Knight wasn't feeling well today so I don't think it would be the best to ride him right now."

"That's all right." The king signaled a guard to come over. "Daichi, could you and a few other guards look around the estate for Hikaru and bring him to us please?"

Daichi nodded and got two other guards and walked outside towards the backyard.

"Wait, but I already told you what Hikaru said. Why don't we just wait till dinner to talk to him? He isn't in the best of mood right now."

The king eyed him suspiciously. "Kaoru, why does it seem like you're hiding something?"

Kaoru could feel himself began to sweat. "I'm not, I promise. It's just-"

"Your majesties!" Daichi called out as him and the other guards came running back into the castle, worried looks on their usual stern faces. "We asked the stable hands if they saw which way Prince Hikaru went and they said they haven't seen him in hours since he took Zorro."

"Hours?" The king questioned. "But Kaoru said he left shortly before we arrived into the throne room."

"And also I saw him going with Naomi to the hidden section of the castle to study before our meeting." The queen pointed out. "So he couldn't have gotten Zorro at that time."

"That's what the stable hands are telling us," another guard said, "and by the look of Zorro's stall it looks like he hasn't been there in a couple hours."

The King's serious expression turned worried. He then looked at the door where Hikaru would go to study before marching towards it.

"Dad, wait!" Kaoru called out to his father, but his father ignored him. "Shit." He whispered before following his dad.

The king moved the red curtain out of the way before opening the door and began marching down the hallway towards the study room.

"Naomi?!" His voice boomed through the hall. "Naomi?!"

Naomi opened the door to the study room and peeked her head out. Seeing the king in front of her worried.

"Yes your majesty?" She asked.

"Where is Hikaru? The stable hands said he took Zorro a couple hours ago but my wife saw him go with you."

Naomi gave a nervous smile, closing the door a bit more around her so the king couldn't see inside. "He's in here don't worry. I was teaching him a lesson about the Great War and we used Zorro as an example then turned him out in the paddick."

"May I speak with my son?"

"He's doing some work right now. I don't think it would be wise to disturb him right now."

The king just glared at her as she continued to smile, his gut was telling him that she was lying. He opened the door, pushing Naomi to the side.

"Wait, your majesty!"

The king ignored her and walked into the study and immediately his blood went cold when he saw the empty, untouched desk. He wasn't there. Where the hell was his son?

He glared over at Naomi, causing her to gulp. "You lied to me!" He hissed. "Where is Hikaru?!"

"I-I…"

"Your majesty!" A guard yelled out. "We found something!"

The king left the room and went over to where the guards were standing. They stood in front of an open cellar door.

"We found the door unlocked and when we checked inside we found that it led to the stables." Daichi informed. "The stable hands said they saw him walk out of it before leaving with Zorro. We also found that the back gate was unlocked."

"Th-That means…" The king paled before turning back to Naomi with a furious glare. "You traitor!" The king roared, causing Naomi to flinch. The king then looked over at Daichi and the other guards. "Search the forest, search the villages, search the whole fucking kingdom for Hikaru! I don't care if you have to bring him back here by force, just get him back here!"

The guards nodded and hurried out of the hall. The king then glared back at Naomi. "I'll deal with you later." He hissed, his words like venom. He then turned his glare towards Kaoru and grabbed his arm roughly. "And you, you're going to tell your mother about how you help cover up your brother leaving! Possibly endangering his and our lives! Then we'll discuss your punishment!"

Kaoru looked at his dad terrified as he yelled at him before his father began dragging him back to the throne room.

* * *

 **Hikaru**

We were silent as we began making our way back towards the bakery. I was still trying to process everything that I just learned. I couldn't believe that I was the only cursed twin in Avalon, everyone else was killed. A huge wash of guilt began to wash over me. I was glad that I was still alive, but if I wasn't the king and queen's son...I would've been killed as well. It made me sick to my stomach.

"Hikaru?" Haruhi spoke up, breaking the silence. I looked over at her. "How are you feeling?"

I sighed. "Guilty, but also angry. My parents know that I'm not bad even though I'm the cursed twin, but they still have the elder twins killed."

"You don't have to feel guilty. You didn't know anything about what was happening."

"I know, I just feel like because they had to die because of the curse. I should've…" Haruhi looked at me sadly before gripping my hand tighter. "So that's why you guys were afraid of me, because you were told a folktale about Kuro trying to take over the kingdom with his powers."

"Yeah," Tamaki sighed, "even though deep down we knew that you were good we all grew up hearing that the curse twin was evil." He smiled at me. "But if you really were evil you wouldn't have saved Haruhi that day, and if you weren't there...I don't even want to imagine what would have happened."

I smiled back at him. "Thanks Tamaki, that make me feel a bit better."

Suddenly I felt Haruhi stop, causing me to stop as well. Tamaki and I looked over at her, seeing a confused but nervous expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Th-The bakery," she stuttered, "there are palace horses in front of the bakery."

"What?!"

I whipped my head towards the bakery and grew pale as I saw three palace horses tied up next to Zorro. I would've been less worried if it wasn't obvious that Zorro was a palace horse because of his tack, but I only had tack from the castle.

I just stared at the horses in horror. How did they find out that I was gone?

* * *

 **Thanks for waiting patiently and reading the latest chapter. Please Favorite, Follow, and Review. Until next time.-HH1957**


	16. Chapter 16

My grip tightened around Haruhi's hand as we continued to stare at the horses. If the guards were here that must mean my parents knew that I was outside the castle walls and sent guards out to find me. I began to feel a type of fear that I've never felt before as I took a step back.

"M-My parents," I stuttered, "they know I'm gone. They're going to kill me."

"He-Hey, maybe we're just thinking too much into this." Tamaki tried to reassure, but the smile on his face was full of worry. "Maybe they were just patrolling the village and decided to stop by the bakery to have a quick snack."

"No," I said, causing his smile to fall, "these guards aren't the normal guards that my dad sends out to patrol the villages." I pointed to the armor that covered the horses' bodies. "They're our strongest search team. My parents only send them out when there's a dangerous criminal in the kingdom that could easily harm people. They're definitely looking for me."

Haruhi stared back at the horses and something immediately caught her eye. On the armor of the three palace horses was an engraved Gemini symbol, which immediately made her blood run cold as she held my arm closer to her.

"They're guards that are used to murder the cursed twins." She said, causing Tamaki and me to look at her.

"What? How do you know that?" Tamaki asked.

Haruhi pointed a shaking hand to the Gemini symbol as she hugged my arm tighter. "The symbol on the horses' armor, it's the zodiac sign for Gemini which means twins. I've seen them before when I was younger take a young boy from his mother...and killed him by throwing him off the horse right in front of her because she wouldn't stop fighting to save her eldest twin son. As the mother cried the guard just told her that he was just doing his job and that she should've just turned him in the day he was born so this could've all been avoided."

I looked at the symbol, starting to get a sick feeling in my stomach. "So that's what the symbol really means. My parents always told us that they chose that symbol because they were proud to have twins...but that was just a lie…"

"Your parents wouldn't actually have you killed." Tamaki gulped. "Right?"

I bit my lip as I stayed silent for a couple seconds before finally answering. "I don't know anymore…"

Haruhi tugged my arm, causing me to look down at her and see her worried expression. "Hikaru, you get out of here. Tamaki and I will distract the guards while you grab Zorro and go home. I don't want to know what they might do to you if they capture you."

I could see the tears peeking at the corner of her eyes as she worried for my safety, which caused my own eyes to burn with tears. I nodded. "Alright, I will." I then put her head in my chest as I wrapped my arms around her into a hug, kissing her head as I felt her grip around me tighten. "I'll try to be back as soon as I can. Even if-"

I was suddenly cut off by the sound of glass breaking coming from the bakery. Haruhi and I looked towards the bakery as we still had our hands around each other.

"My dad," Haruhi whispered terrified, "my dad's working right now."

I glared towards the bakery and let out a low growl before separating from her and began marching towards the bakery.

"Wait Hikaru!" Haruhi ran after me with Tamaki trailing behind her. "What are you doing?"

"Confronting them." I growled angrily as I clenched my hands into fists. "I might be a cursed twin but I'm still a prince so they'll have to listen to me."

I opened the door to the bakery and immediately saw that it was trashed. Wood and glass were all over the floor along with some pastries. The display case was cracked and furniture was smashed. I clenched my jaw and I grew even more furious, feeling heat began to form in my palms as I looked over towards the guards. One held Ranka up by the collar of his shirt, making him lean over the display case as the guard had his face up to his.

"I'm going to ask you one last time." The guard I recognized was Daichi growled. "Where is Hikaru?!"

"I told you, I don't know anyone named Hikaru." Ranka answered through clenched teeth. "He might've tied up his horse there before wandering off."

"Hey!" Ranka and the guards immediately turned to face me. "Let him go!"

"Or what?" One of the guards snickered. "What are you going to do about it kid?"

I clenched my jaw tighter as the heat in my palms began to grow. Daichi seemed to be the only one who noticed the clothes that I was wearing, which were my usual black royal attire.

He dropped Ranka and turned over to face me, a deep scowl on his middle aged face. He pushed past the guards who was taunting me so he could be the one closest to me. His dark, cold grey eyes meeting my hazel ones underneath my cloak hood.

"I knew you would be in the closet village." He said, making my glare harden. "You probably had it all planned out so if you had to rush home it wouldn't take as long. Am I right Prince Hikaru?" I just growled as Daichi continued. "You know the rules your majesty, you're not allowed outside the castle grounds and no one out here should know of your existence." His eyes traveled to Haruhi and Tamaki who stood behind me. "But I guess some people already know."

He then looked over at just Haruhi and his eyes slightly widened when he noticed the way she was gripping my arm, almost in a protective way that lovers hold each other. His expression soon turned back to normal and he looked back up to me.

"Well, I'm sure your father would love to hear the story behind this little romance, wouldn't he." I growled again as I moved Haruhi so she was behind me, in between Tamaki and me. Daichi looked at the other guards. "Get him while I get everything ready to leave."

The two guards nodded and began making their way over towards me.

"Wait!" Tamaki said as he jumped in front of me. "Let's just talk this through instead of using violence. How about we-"

Before he could finish his proposal one of the guards grabbed Tamaki and threw him to the side, causing the items in the bags he was holding to spill out as he hit the broken cupboard on the floor, breaking it even further.

"Tamaki!" Haruhi and I shouted.

"I'm fine." He groaned as he held onto his left shoulder. "But I think I landed on my shoulder wrong."

I glared back at the guards and conjured up flames in my hands as I kept Haruhi behind me.

"You wouldn't want to burn this bakery down." Daichi smirked. "You're poor villager girlfriend will be homeless because of your stupid actions."

My glare immediately fell and I looked over at Ranka, who was watching everything play out in horror. I then looked at Haruhi, who I had hidden behind me. She was gripping onto my cloak nervously. I knew she wasn't afraid for herself and what might happen to the bakery, but she was afraid for me. I looked back towards the guards with a scowl.

"Fine," I grumbled as the flames disappeared from my palms, "I won't use flames."

I then flung my arm out, causing the two guards to fly back into the display case, breaking it even further, I would have to apologize to Ranka later about that. The guards glared at me and tried to get back up but I held them down with my powers, a small smirk spreading across my face as I watched them struggle. I guess you could say that this was revenge for what they did to Tamaki.

"I've had enough of this." I heard Daichi huffed.

I glared towards him as he reached into his bag and began digging through it. Instantly my glare fell and I grew modified as the item that he pulled out. What he pulled out of his bag was a small hand mirror that had a wooden frame carved beautifully with roses and a skull at the top. He pushed the skull down and the mirror turned black almost immediately and a loud ear piercing sound hit my ears, causing me immense pain. I released the two other guards from my powers and gripped my hair and screamed as the pain grew worse. Soon my legs gave out from under me and I hunched over in pain as tears welled up in my eyes as the pain intensified. My brain felt like it was being pounded into mush by the painful sound, just like it did when they used it on me when I was a kid.

"Hikaru!" Haruhi cried out as she knelt down beside me. She put her hands on my back and felt that I was trembling horribly from the pain. "What are you doing to him?!"

"I'm using black magic to make him powerless." Daichi answered nonchalantly. "We may not be able to hear it but the mirror produces a high and intense sound that makes people with Prince Hikaru's 'situation' unable to fight back. For him, we used to use it to get him under control as a kid when he would act out."

He turned the sound up, causing me to cry out in pain as tears began trailing down my face. My grip tightened around my hair, almost on the verge of ripping it out, and I clenched my teeth hard together.

Haruhi put her arms around my back as if she was trying to make a protective shield around me. "Stop! You're hurting him!"

"I'll only stop if he agrees to come back to the castle without a fight."

"He'll go!" Haruhi cried. "I'll make him go. Just stop this!"

Daichi just glowered at her for a few low seconds before pushing down the skull, turning off the sound.

Immediately I felt relief as the sound disappeared and let out a breath before I began panting. I could feel Haruhi's arms still around me, holding me tighter when she knew I was no longer in pain. My body felt weak, which it always did whenever this happened to me. I then suddenly felt a pair of hands roughly grab me and lifted me up before laying my torso on the portion of the display case that was not broken. I heard the sounds of chains from behind me and felt the cold metal close around my wrists.

"I don't want you to try and fight us when you start getting your strength back."

I growled at him as I heard the chains lock. He then reached over to pull me up, but as he was right above me I launched my head up, head butting him in the face, causing him to drop the mirror as he stumbled back. I stood up and faced Daichi with a glare as he uncovered his nose, looking at the blood that was on his hands that was from his now bleeding nose. He looked up at me, no emotion on his face, but I could tell in his eyes that he was furious.

"Knock him out." He ordered.

My eyes widened and before I could do anything a sack was put over my head and I felt someone's arm around my neck, putting me in a headlock as they began choking me. I tried to fight off the guard, but my body was still too weak and it only made me lose more air.

I gasped as they tightened their grip around my neck, making it impossible to get any air to my lungs.

"Stop it!" I heard Haruhi scream, but her voice was muffled from the lack of oxygen.

I started seeing black dots in my vision and soon couldn't feel my body any longer before I finally blackout.

* * *

 **Haruhi**

Haruhi just watched in horror as her boyfriend's body went limp and the guard laid him down on the floor when he knew he was out cold. He checked the pulse on the side of Hikaru's neck before looking at Daichi.

"He's still alive, just knocked out."

"Good, I wouldn't want to explain to the king that we had to kill his son getting him back home." Daichi huffed, wiping his nose with a napkin he found on the counter.

"I don't understand why the king and queen kept him alive." One of the guards commented as he tied the sack that was over Hikaru's head so it wouldn't slip off. "If I had twins I wouldn't think twice about killing the cursed one."

"Well, your opinion might change if you actually have twins. The king and queen still believe that cursed twins could cause the destruction of the kingdom but couldn't bear to kill their own son when they had twins." Daichi removed the napkin from his nose, seeing the bleeding has stopped then threw it away. "Strap him on Zorro so we can head out."

The two other guards nodded and the one closest to Hikaru hoisted him up over his shoulder before heading outside.

"What are you going to do with him?" Haruhi asked worried as she faced Daichi, who was picking up the mirror.

"We're taking him back to the castle." Daichi answered as he checked the mirror to see if it was broken. "The king and queen will most likely have him on lock down for an indefinite amount of time. Probably it'll take years for his parents to trust him again and they'll probably have a guard follow him wherever he goes." He looked down at Haruhi as he put the mirror in his bag. "I have a feeling that you knew of Prince Hikaru's situation before our little encounter. Am I correct?" Haruhi nodded her head. "And I also take it that you two are in some sort of romantic relationship."

Haruhi felt her face heat up as she stared up at the castle guard, who still had no emotion on his face, as if he was a brick wall. "How-How did you…"

"How did I know?" He finished her sentence, causing Haruhi to nod. "I saw the way you two were acting when he confronted us. He held you behind him in a protective manner that men usually do when they sense that someone they deeply care about is in danger, and also by the way you yelled at us and held him when I used the mirror to restrain him. But I pieced it together when I called you his girlfriend and he reacted more protectively, because he'll know what his father would do if he found out." He shrugged his shoulders as he watched the guards tie up Hikaru's legs to Zorro with a rope so he wouldn't fall off. "If I can be honest with you I'm not totally against it."

Haruhi looked up at him in shock. "You're not?"

"No, not really." He said. "It might not seem like it but I really do care about him. I've known the twins since the day they were born and I know that he's a good kid but," he looked back over at Haruhi, "even though I'm glad that he's happy with you I would advise you to just move on. He's still dangerous for being a cursed twin. You saw the way he acted when he tried to fight us off. If his body wasn't already weak he could've severely hurt us if he really wanted to. Also he's most likely never going to be let out of the castle again, so it would be the best for you to forget about him."

Haruhi just stared at Daichi for a couple seconds before looking over at her boyfriend outside, a small frown forming on her lips. "You're wrong." She said, causing Daichi to cock an eyebrow at her. "Hikaru may be a cursed twin but he's not dangerous. Instead of endangering my life he has actually saved me." She glared at him. "So you may have known him and his brother since they were born but you don't truly know who Hikaru is."

For the first time that they met Haruhi saw emotion on Daichi's face. It might've been a little but it was still emotion. He looked at Haruhi with what looked like a surprised expression, then it turned confused then sad as he looked back at the Prince, seeing that the guards finished strapping him to Zorro. His expression then turned back to neutral as it was before.

"Like I said you should just forget about him." He said as he began walking to the door, Haruhi glaring at his back. "He's most likely never going to leave the castle ever again."

* * *

 **Hikaru**

My eyes fluttered open and I let out a weak cough. As my vision cleared up I noticed that all I could see was the color beige. I tried to move my arm and legs but they were both restrained for some reason. I heard the footsteps of four different horses as we rode down what sounded like a dirt trail.

Why was I strapped on a horse? I didn't remember getting on the horse. All I remember was…

My eyes instantly widened and I shot up so I was sitting upright. "Haruhi!"

"Calm down your majesty. You don't want to scare the horses." Daichi said.

My breath began to get labored as I began struggling against my restraints. "Where are we? Where's Haruhi?!"

"Don't worry, your girlfriend and friend are fine." Daichi answered. "We're now taking you back to the castle. Your parents are waiting for your reaction."

As I heard him say my parents were waiting for me I felt my body go cold for the first time in my life. I didn't know how my parents were going to react. The two most important rules were for me to not leave the castle grounds and have no one outside the castle should know of my existence, and I broke both of those rules. I tried to see through the material of the sack to see where I was, but the fabric was too thick to see anything. They probably put this over my head so the villagers wouldn't know that I'm the cursed twin of the prince of Avalon.

I clenched my jaw as I grew angry at the thought of the cursed twin. I still couldn't believe that my parents were still killing them because they believed that they were evil, but they know that I'm not evil. So why are they still enforcing the law to kill them?

I suddenly heard the familiar sound of the back gate opening.

"Welcome back." A servant greeted.

I suddenly felt very sick as I heard the gate close behind us. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I felt my heart began to beat hard in my chest. I knew what fear felt like, but I never felt a type of fear like this. I could feel my body began to sweat, which it rarely ever does.

I felt us suddenly stop and the heard the armor squeak as the guards dismounted their horses and made their way over to me. I felt them began to take off the ropes that held my legs to Zorro and two guards helped me down before they each grabbed one of my arms and began leading me towards the castle. My breathing became labored again as I heard the grass from under my feet turn into wood as we made it up to the porch then turn into marble as we went inside the castle. I tried digging my heels into the ground to try and slow us down, but the marble was too slick.

Soon the marble grew quiet under my boots as we reached the long red carpet in the throne room that led to the thrones. I couldn't see them but I could sense the presence of my parents and a dark aura filled the room. They were mad, no they were way more than mad, they were furious. We suddenly stopped and I felt a guard kick the back of my knee, making me fall on my knees before taking the bag on my head. I gulped before slowly looking up, immediately seeing my father's furious glare as mother and Kaoru stood on opposite sides of him. Mom didn't really look angry but just disappointed while Kaoru just gave me a morose look.

"Where was he?" My dad asked as the guards removed the chains from my wrists.

"He was in the village Lyko." Daichi answered. "We found Zorro tied up outside a bakery and found Prince Hikaru a few minutes later when he entered the bakery to confront us."

Dad glared back at me, causing a chill to go down my spine as I saw how furious he was. "What in the world were you thinking?!" He roared furiously, causing me to look down, my bangs covering my eyes. "We've told you repeatedly you could not leave the castle grounds! You deliberately disobeyed us by even stepping a foot past the walls, but going into a village?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?! What if someone saw you?! You could've put us and yourself in danger!"

I just remained silent and didn't look up at them. I've been scolded before by my dad many time, but only for little things like stealing food or leaving my room when we had guests over. But nothing ever like this.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"I...I…" I sighed before looking back at them. "I'm sorry. I was just sick of being stuck in this castle with nowhere to go. I wanted to see what the world was like outside the castle walls."

"You still shouldn't have disobeyed us." Mother said in a soft voice. "We're just looking out for you to make sure you remain safe. You know what people would do if they found out about your powers."

I clenched the fabric of my pants, knowing that she was lying to me like she's been doing for the past sixteen years of my life. Yes, people were afraid of my powers but they were more afraid of me because I was a cursed twin and believed that I was an evil person.

"Does anyone know of your existence?" Dad asked. "Do they know that you're Kaoru's twin?"

I remained silent, not wanting to answer his question. I didn't know what he would do to my friends if he found out about them. Especially if he found out about Haruhi…

"Wait, why would it be a big deal if they found out I had a twin?" Kaoru asked.

"There about three people that know of his existence." Daichi stated, not bothering to answer Kaoru's question. "They also know about his powers because they seemed unfazed when he used them against us when we tried to bring him back here."

Dad's glare turned even more furious and I gulped, feeling as if I were a little kid again.

"I-I can explain." I stuttered out. "I did-didn't want them to find out wh-who I was but I crashed into a display that caused my-my hood to fall off. Th-they first thought I-I was Kaoru but soon learned that it was me."

"And your powers?" He growled.

"We-We were hiking down the trail Stormholt and a bo-bolder was tumbling down towards us and I u-used my powers to save one of my friends."

It pained me to call Haruhi my friend but I didn't want them knowing that I was dating her. Especially that she's a poor villager. My parents have talked about maybe arranging me with some girls of high ranking that are siblings of the girls that they have been thinking of arranging Kaoru with. I knew my dad was highly against the lower class marrying into a high class family. Saying that the mixing of blue blood and peasant blood was a disgrace.

"You went down Stormholt trail?" Mother asked concerned.

I nodded, which caused my dad to grow even more furious. "Not only do people know of you and your powers but you also went down the most dangerous trail in Avalon!"

"They-They weren't afraid of my powers." I lied. "They were actually grateful that I had powers to save them."

My father's glare hardened. "I highly doubt that."

I gulped again and opened my mouth to try and convince him that it was true, but before I could speak Daichi spoke up again.

"There's something else I think you should know about your majesty." Daichi said, turning my father's attention back to him. "From what I saw there it seemed like he was having some type of a romantic relationship with a female villager."

My eyes widened as I stared at Daichi before looking back at my father, who looked even furious than he was before, if that was even possible.

"N-No I'm not!" I lied. "I'm only friends with her. There's nothing romantic between us!"

"Hikaru, you know my thoughts on blue bloods having relations with peasants!"

"It's not like that. I promise she's just a friend, that's all!"

Dad's eyes narrowed as he stared at me. "Has she taken away your innocents?"

A light blush tinted my cheeks. "Wh-What?"

He took a step down so he was right in front of me before repeating himself. "Has she taken away your innocents?"

"N-No." I stuttered out an answer. "I told you that we're just friends."

Dad just continued to stare down at me, his glare hardening again as he saw the blush tinting on my pale skin. "I don't know what to believe from you anymore."

My eyes widened at what he said and he looked over at Daichi, who seemed to know what my dad wanted without speaking to him. He reached into his bag and pulled out a small round bottle of some sort of dark purple liquid before making his way over to me.

"If you won't be willing to tell me the truth," dad said, "then I'll make you tell the truth."

I then felt Daichi grab my jaw and use his thumb and middle finger to force my mouth open and put a drop of the purple liquid in my mouth. As it hit my tongue an instant horrid bitter taste filled my mouth that I couldn't describe. I coughed and shook my head, as if that would get the flavor out of my mouth.

"Now," dad said, drawing back my attention, "let's get some real answers. When was the first time you left the castle grounds?"

 _'About a week ago.'_

"About eleven months ago during Kaoru's birthday festival."

My eyes widened again as I covered my mouth with my gloved hand. Wh-What just happened? Why did I tell the truth? It was like my mouth wasn't producing the words that my brain wanted to say.

"How many people know of your existence?"

 _'Only three.'_

"Six people."

I clenched my jaw as I started to grow frustrated. Damn it, why was this happening to me?!

"What are their names?"

"Tamaki Suoh, Kyoya Ootori, Takashi Morinozuka, Mitsukuni Haninozuka, Haruhi Fujioka, and Ryoji Fujioka."

"Most of those names are higher class families." Mother spoke up. "The only name I don't recognize is Fujioka."

"Which must mean she's the peasant girl that he's romantically involved with." He gritted his teeth. "Right Hikaru?"

I just stared up at him in fear, afraid to answer the question. I didn't know what was going on with me but I couldn't lie. Whatever Daichi gave me must've been some sort of truth potion. I looked over at Kaoru for help, trying to get him to maybe somehow convince dad to stop this. He instantly caught my stare and bit his lip unsure. I could tell that he wanted to help but he also didn't want to upset our father any further.

He let out a sigh. "Dad, I think-"

"Quiet!" Dad ordered, turning his glare towards Kaoru. "You're in about the same amount of trouble as your brother for letting him leave the estate!" He then faced back towards me. "Answer my question Hikaru. Is that Haruhi girl and you romantically involved with each other?"

 _'No.'_

"Yes." I answered, looking away from him. "We've been dating for about ten months."

"Have you lost your innocents?" My blush returned to my cheeks as I continued to look down, refusing to answer the question. "Hikaru." dad said through clenched teeth, "answer the damn question. Have you lost your innocents to her?"

 _'No.'_

"No." I answered truthfully. "I haven't lost my innocents to her or anyone else."

"That's good." Dad said, his anger only slightly faltering. "I don't need to worry about a half blood maybe being born into our family." He looked back to Daichi. "I've heard all I needed to hear."

Daichi nodded and grabbed another small round bottle from his bag, but this time the liquid was clear, and he opened my mouth again before putting a drop of the liquid in my mouth. This time it tasted really sweet, almost like a very intense candy. It didn't taste bad but it made my jaw hurt from how sweet it was.

"Now let's discuss your punishment and new rules." He said, making me look back up at him. "For rules, you are still not allowed to step outside the castle walls and to make sure that doesn't happen we are tightening up security around the castle. You also must have a guard with you at all times when you're going around the estate or home alone. If you fail to have a guard with you and we find out you will be punished."

"But dad I-"

"I'm not finished!" He barked, causing me to flinch. "As for your punishments you'll be grounded in your room for an indefinite amount of time until we decide you can leave. The only times you're allowed out is for meals and to study, and to make sure that you'll stay in your room Kaoru is switching bedrooms until further notice and is not allowed to speak to you while you're in your room. It'll be both of your punishments for disobeying me. Also you will end you relationship with your peasant 'girlfriend' and you'll do it in person."

"Dad, no please…" I begged, feeling tears welled up in my eyes, but he just ignored my pleas and continued.

"Since you won't be allowed outside the castle grounds we'll bring her here so you can officially break your relations with her."

"Dad…" I cried but he continued to ignore me.

"Your last punishment is that you're getting a new tutor starting tomorrow." He said, making my eyes go wide. "We're firing Naomi."

My eyes began to produce more tears hearing about Naomi. "Dad please, you can't do this."

"I'm your father and the king Hikaru. I can do whatever the hell I want." He narrowed his eyes at me again. "Naomi knew the main rules in this castle and went behind our backs to help you leave. We can't trust someone who will be so willing to be persuaded to work for us." He crossed his arms over his chest before continuing. "We're also banishing her from the kingdom."

"Dad!"

"I'm sorry Hikaru but she knows too much." Mom chimed in. "If we kept her in the kingdom the knowledge of your existence could be widely spread. We just can't trust her."

"Especially not after helping you leave for the past few months."

Even more tears began trailing down my face. Naomi couldn't leave, she's been here since the day I was born. She was like a second mother to me and was one of the only few people who knew I was good despite my powers. Almost every other staff member here didn't want anything to do with me, which now I knew was because of the curse.

I heard the sound of a door opening and turned towards the sound. My eyes began to water even more when I saw it was Naomi, with two big bags in her hands as she was being led by two guards towards the front door. She quickly made eye contact with me and her already glum expression worsened before turning away from me, a small tear trailing down her face.

"Naomi!" I called out to her before getting up and running towards her.

I didn't make it far before a guard grabbed me, holding me back. I felt an overbearing power of anger and sadness as I watched her walk closer to the main door.

I glared towards the guard holding me back. "Let me go!"

I pushed him back with my powers, causing him to hit the wall hard before I began running towards Naomi again. A couple more guards tried to stop me along the way but I pushed past them, causing them to fall on the floor as I continued running. I then felt someone grab my arm and yank me back, almost causing me to fall over. I growled and heated up my palm before placing it on their skin, making them to cry out in pain and immediately let me go.

"Naomi!" I called out again before resuming to run after her.

"Daichi!" My father ordered.

"Yes your majesty."

I continued running towards her, seeing her almost at the door. I began to quicken my pace but not long after I began to hear an ear piercing screech. Not again.

I immediately stopped where I was and put my hands over my ears, trying to make the noise less painful but it didn't help. My legs soon began to stumble over each other a bit before finally collapsing. I hunched over and cried out as the pain intensified. I looked over towards Naomi. My vision was blurry but I could still faintly see her staring at me as she stood next to the open door.

"I would advise you to leave now Naomi." My dad said. "Before anything gets worse."

Naomi nodded before looking back at me one last time then left without saying anything.

"Nao...Naomi." I struggled out through the pain.

The pain soon grew too strong for me to handle and I fell over on my side, almost in a fetal position. I looked over at my parents with pleading expressions, begging them to stop this but they did nothing. I then looked over at Kaoru for help but saw that he was sitting on our father's throne hunched over, covering his ears as if he was in pain as well.

I heard my father's footsteps as he walked over to me, stopping next to where I was laying on the ground in pain.

"Now, will you stop fighting and listen?"

I couldn't answer to his question. The pain was too intense that my body couldn't produce any words, which caused my father to grow angry by my silence.

He looked back over at Daichi. "Turn it up."

Daichi nodded and turned up the sound, causing me to let out another pain filled cry as I rolled onto my back, gripping my hair.

"Now I'll ask again." My dad said as he glared down at me. "Well you stop fighting and listen?"

"Yes!" I finally managed to get out. "Yes I'll listen!"

"Good to hear." He then faced two guards. "Cuff him."

As my dad walked away two guards grabbed my arms and put a cuff on them. Then once the cuffs were on the ear piercing sound finally stopped, making Kaoru and I let out breaths of relief. I moved my hands above my face to look at the cuffs and instantly grew horrified. The cuffs were metal and covered my whole hand, and it had the same moon symbol engraved into them as Nekozawa's necklace.

"Look familiar?" Dad asked, causing me to look over at him. "I bet you never thought you would be wearing those again did you?"

I looked back at the cuffs and gulped. When I was younger I had the wear cuffs like these whenever I lost control of my temper, because that was usually when I would lose control of my powers. With the cuffs on I couldn't use my powers and I was then locked in a room for a few days until my parents knew it was safe for them to take them off.

I looked back at my dad terrified. "Dad I'm sorry. Please don't do this."

Dad just glared at me before looking at the guards holding the chains to the cuffs, then motioned his head for them to go.

"Please dad don't do this!" I pleaded. "I'm sorry. I promise I won't fight back anymore!"

One of the guards holding my chains came up beside me with a long piece of white cloth and tied it so it covered my mouth, silencing my pleas. They then began dragging me out of the throne room by the chains. I looked at my parents as I cried, my begs muffled out by the cloth. But they just turned away from me as I was dragged out into the hall. The only face that I saw was Kaoru's, who had a doleful expression as he watched me get dragged out before the doors to the throne room closed.


	17. Chapter 17

I slowly opened my eyes as I awakened from my slumber, my body feeling exhausted as if I hadn't had any sleep at all. I knew the reason why it was because of the cuffs. The cuffs that were around my hands were possessed with black magic and wouldn't allow me to use any of my powers. It also drained my energy so I wouldn't have the strength to fight back.

I looked towards the window, seeing the morning sun beginning to rise through the lavender, see through, curtains that barely darkened the room. I've been in here for two days, not being able to do anything as my chains were securely locked at the foot of my bed. At first, I tried to get out of my chains, seeing if I could either get them to slip off or break, but as my energy began to drain I didn't have the strength to try to break them any longer. So I then spent most of my time sleeping or looking out the window, wondering what Haruhi was doing. Was she worried about me? I was worried about what dad might do when he brings her here. I knew that he wanted me to break up with her, but would he do more? I didn't know what I would do if he banished her from the kingdom like he did to Naomi.

A soft knock broke me out of my thought and I looked over towards the door, not bothering to lift my head from my pillow as I felt too weak too. I heard the door unlock and a guard opened the door, letting in a maid that was carrying a tray of food in.

"Time for breakfast Prince Hikaru." The maid said as she walked up to the left side of the bed. I just gave a subtle glare before looking away from her. I could hear her sigh as she placed the tray of food next to me on the bed. "You can't keep skipping meals your majesty. You haven't eaten the two days you've been here and you know because of the cuffs you have to eat or you could get sick from the black magic." She walked over to the other side of the bed that I was facing and lowered the cloth that covered my mouth so I could talk. "Come on, let's get you up so you can eat."

"I'm not hungry." I grumbled, not moving from the position that I was in.

"You may not be hungry, but you need the energy. You're father also informed me that I can't leave the room until you at least ate some of your breakfast."

I groaned as I finally gave in. It took me a couple seconds to gather up the strength but I slowly sat up, leaning my back against the headboard of the bed so I wouldn't fall over by how weak it was. The maid went back over to the tray of food and picked up the bowl of what looked like oatmeal.

I made a disgusted face as she began to stir the oatmeal with a spoon. "Can I have at least something other than that?"

"I'm sorry your majesty, but you need to get your energy back up. If you feel better tomorrow I'll ask your father if you could have a different breakfast, but it'll still need to have an energy boost for you."

I let out a tired sigh as she scooped up a spoon full of oatmeal and brought it up to my lips so she could feed it to me, but instead of eating it I just glared at the vomit looking food before turning my face away from it.

I could hear her sigh again as she moved the spoon away, becoming frustrated. "Your majesty, if you don't eat your father is going to get angry. You don't want an even worse punishment than you already have now by having the guards force feed you."

I huffed and faced back towards her, the glare still on my face as the maid brought the food back up to my lips. I was reluctant at first as I just stared at the dull, flavorless meal, but I soon ate the spoonful of oatmeal, making the maid smile.

"See, that wasn't so bad."

I just rolled my eyes as I continued to eat what she fed me. The oatmeal was bland and plain, if they were going to make me eat this they should have at least put some flavor into it. Although, after a few bites I did start to feel some energy starting to come back, though I wouldn't admit it. Soon, however, I grew tired of the oatmeal and couldn't handle eating another bite. As she brought another spoonful to my mouth I turned my head away again.

"Come on your majesty, just eat a little more." She nudged the spoon closer to me, but I didn't look back at her, causing her to lower the spoon. "Well, you ate about half of your breakfast, so I guess that's good enough for right now." I looked back at her as I heard her beginning to clean up and once everything was put together she walked back up to me and moved the white cloth back over my mouth before she went back to the tray and lifted it up. "I'll notify your father that you've eaten this morning. I'm sure he'll be pleased."

I watched her leave the room with the guard following behind her. As I heard the sound of the door locking I let out a groan and flopped back down on the bed to the position I was in before the maid showed up. I looked down at my chains around my hands and tugged them a bit, hearing the metal clink together as the chains rubbed against each other. There was no point in struggling against them anymore because I knew I wouldn't be able to get out of them.

I looked back out the window as I leaned my head further in the pillow. I wonder what Haruhi was doing right now while I was locked up in here?

* * *

 **Haruhi**

Haruhi threw the dough on the counter and began aggressively kneading the dough as she glared at it. She was angry, no she was more than angry, she was furious. Just a few days ago, royal guards trashed her family-run bakery, hurt her dad and friends, and knocked out her boyfriend before taking him back to the castle where he was most likely now on lockdown. Since that day she's been feeling all types of different emotions. Fear for what they might do to Hikaru now that they knew he's been leaving the castle. Sadness that she might not be able to see him again, and now she was feeling anger from everything that did happen.

The only small ounce of happiness she was feeling was that her other friends pitched in to fix and pay for damages to the bakery, but other than that she wasn't feeling any emotion close to happiness.

"I think you've beaten up the dough enough."

Haruhi paused what she was doing and looked over towards her dad, who was holding back the curtain as he stood in the doorway.

"Sorry," Haruhi apologized, "I'm just not in the greatest mood right now."

Ranka smiled sadly at his daughter and walked over to her before placing his hands on her shoulders. "You really miss him, don't you?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"Well, for the past few days since he's been gone you've made only his favorite foods. You've even made lamb and bought a pasta machine so you could make noodle dishes and we've been eating those for most of our meals, which is starting to get expensive.

"I just can't stop worrying about him." Haruhi sighed sadly as she looked down at the dough that she overly kneaded and would most likely have to throw away. "I mean, not that long ago we were discussing what we could do for our one year anniversary, and now I might not be able to see him again…"

"Hopefully you two were planning on doing something innocent."

A dark blush covered Haruhi's face and she glared over at her father. "Dad!"

Ranka laughed and patted his daughter's back. "I'm just joking." His sad smile returned to his face. "I'm sure you'll see him again. It might take a while but I have a feeling he loves you enough to break the rules to come back and see you, even if it's only for a minute." Haruhi just responded with a nod and faced away from her father. "Well, I better get back to helping the boys rebuild. I'll check up on you later, alright?"

Haruhi didn't say anything and soon heard the curtains move, letting her know that her father had left. She looked towards her right and saw all the food that she's made in the past few days. She knew Hikaru wasn't going to be back in time to eat them before they went bad, but making all the food brought her some happiness as she remembered their date at the waterfall last week, and how everything was so great. They didn't even suspect something like this would happen, especially after him sneaking out for almost a year without getting caught, but sadly they were sure to notice sooner or later, but she wished it would have been later, a lot later…

* * *

 ** _One week ago_**

 _Hikaru hopped off Zorro before smiling up at Haruhi as he extended a hand out for her. Haruhi rolled her eyes but smiled as well as she took his hand and helped her down._

 _"You know, I could have gotten down myself."_

 _"What kind of boyfriend and prince would I be if I didn't help my beautiful girlfriend down?"_

 _She just rolled her eyes again, the smile never leaving her face as she walked to the back of Zorro and began unstrapping the picnic basket as Hikaru tied him to a tree._

 _"You know those type of things don't impress me."_

 _"I'm your boyfriend, I don't have to impress you." When he got Zorro reins securely tied to the tree he walked over to Haruhi and wrapped his arms around her waist once she got the basket down. He put his lips to her ears and purred, "you already love me for who I am."_

 _He kissed her cheek, making her blush, and he unwrapped his arms from around her, to her dismay but she would never admit that to him. It was their ten month anniversary and they decided to have a small picnic down at the waterfall because it was Hikaru's favorite date spot mostly because they were alone for hours, with no one bothering them. Haruhi also enjoyed it there because she didn't have to worry about Hikaru being noticed._

 _Once the picnic was set up they sat down on the blanket and began taking out some of the food. Hikaru rummaged through the basket, searching to see if she packed any of his favorite foods that he's grown to love outside from the food from the castle. He was a picky eater, there was not arguing that but growing up your whole life in a castle with nothing but the best rich and flavorful food would cause you to not as normal everyday food villagers ate, but surprisingly there were some exceptions that Haruhi had shown him that he actually liked._

 _"Yes!" He quietly cheered as he pulled out a medium-sized bowl from the picnic basket and took off the top, revealing homemade hummus. "I've literally been craving this all week."_

 _Haruhi chuckled at his excitement as she continued as she continued setting up the picnic. "You're lucky I remembered you mentioning it the last time we met or I wouldn't have made it this morning."_

 _"Yes, I'm very lucky." He smiled._

 _Haruhi finished setting up, along with Hikaru's help, and they began digging into the food. For the first half an hour they just talked to each other how their lives were going, like they usually did when they hung out or went on dates. Unfortunately, this past month Hikaru's parents have been less busy and have been trying to have more family time with him since they've been less busy lately, or that's how his mother put. He was happy that they were trying to connect with him more, but he was also annoyed that he wouldn't be able to sneak out as much with them around him. He usually was able to escape when his parents were busy, but that was usually only once a week, sometimes twice, but he wouldn't be able to stay out for long in fear that his parent might notice he was gone. Luckily today, however, his parents were discussing the benefits and disadvantages of the partnerships from the kingdoms surrounding Avalon, which would take almost all day to get through. So, because Hikaru was able to stay out later than usual they decided to go out on a long-awaited date._

 _Haruhi looked up at her boyfriend as he took a bite of some pita bread. She forwarded her eyebrows slightly at how his hood was still covering the upper part of his face, from the bridge of his nose up. Usually she wouldn't really mind if he had his hood up when they were outside, given the circumstance that he was a cursed twin, (but still didn't know he was one) but when they were alone she would actually like to see his face. She moved so she was sitting right in front of him and grabbed his hood, moving it back enough so his full face was showing, which caused him to look up at her._

 _Since Kaoru has been hanging out with them Haruhi has been able to distinguish subtle differences between him and her boyfriend, besides the color of their hair. They might be identical but one of the biggest differences they had was their skin color. Nobody really realized it at first until they saw the twins next to each other and noticed that Hikaru was about two or three shades lighter than Kaoru. When Haruhi brought it up to him Hikaru didn't really know an answer for it. He said he goes outside pretty much every day and gets almost as much sunlight as Kaoru does, but he's always been paler than Kaoru since they've been born. He thought it might've had something to do with his powers, but again he wasn't fully sure._

 _Another difference she noticed was their facial features. Kaoru had slightly_ _softer features than Hikaru, which made him look a bit friendlier (which he actually was) while Hikaru had slightly sharper features, but people wouldn't notice the small difference if they just met them. It took Haruhi a few days to notice them._

 _However, the difference she noticed the most was their eyes. They both had golden hazel eyes, but Haruhi started noticing that Hikaru's eyes had a hint of more green in them. It was barely noticeable to the naked eye, but if you put the twins together and studied them for long enough you could easily tell._

 _"Enjoying the view?" Hikaru playfully smirked, causing Haruhi to break out of her reverie._

 _"Don't get full of yourself." Haruhi said as she rolled her eyes, a small smile forming on her lips. "We're alone together in the woods. I actually want to see your face while we're on a date."_

 _"Oh, we are alone, aren't we?" He purred._

 _Then as if he was a cat he pounced on Haruhi, making her let out a small squeak by the sudden action, and held her close to his body as he began to kiss her. Haruhi smiled against his lips as she put her hands on his chest to try and push him off, but his grip around her was too tight. She turned her head away from him, but instead of stopping he just moved to her neck._

 _"Hikaru stop," she said as she tried her best to hold back a moan. She wasn't going to lie, the way he was kissing her felt amazing, but she didn't want to be making out with her boyfriend in the open, just in case someone did come by, "what if someone walks by and catches up?"_

 _"No one is going to catch is." He said in between kisses._

 _As he went to kiss her lips again, Haruhi covered his mouth with her hand. "Well, I don't want to take any chances."_

 _He glared down at her, which only caused Haruhi to laugh. He removed her hand from his mouth._

 _"Whatever, spoilsport"_

 _Haruhi just laughed as he rolled off of her and huffed. She rolled onto her side to look at him but he faced away from her along with his arms crossed over his chest as if he were a spoiled child. At first, when they started dating Haruhi didn't know if he was joking or not when he acted like this. He was a prince after all, and usually got whatever he wanted, so her refusing to publically kiss him probably would've upset him. However, after almost a year of_ _dating, she realized he was mostly joking. Yeah, he was upset that he couldn't kiss her publically, but he understood. Haruhi didn't really like drawing attention to herself, but she was more worried about drawing attention to Hikaru. It seemed as if she was more worried about him being caught, or noticed by someone in public then he was._

 _Although, he was worried about a guard catching him and taking him back to the castle. He didn't know that if villagers found out who he actually was that might riot against him and his family. So, Haruhi tried her best to do everything to try and prevent that from happening._

 _Soon Hikaru's childish act ended and he just he let out a sigh as he laid flat on his back. "God, the heat from the sun is making me so tired."_

 _Haruhi cocked an eyebrow. "Wait, you can feel_ _heat_? _" Hikaru nodded. "But that doesn't make any sense. You can't get burned and don't seem to be affected when the temperature is practically blazing. You'll still wear your cloak and won't even break a sweat from how thick the material is. I thought you wouldn't be able to feel_ _heat just like you can't feel cold."_

 _"Well, uh, how do I explain it?" He said as he put his hand to his chin in thought. "I can feel the heat radiate off of things, like the sun or a fire, but it doesn't really affect my body. If that makes any sense."_

 _"Is that the same way with coldness?"_

 _"No, not really." He answered. "I can't really feel anything cold. Like when I jumped into the frozen lake to save you I felt nothing. It felt just like regular temperature water to me, but if the water was warm I could pretty much feel it. The only time I don't feel_ _heat is when it's directly against my skin. It's like my body numbs it so I won't feel anything from the heat source."_

 _"Well, since you can't get burned by touching anything hot can you still get a sunburn? You're not directly touching the sun so your body won't numb it or anything."_

 _"What's a sunburn?"_

 _Haruhi looked at her boyfriend in shock. "Wait, you really don't know what a sunburn is?" Hikaru shook his head at her question. "Well, it's when the heat from the sun is too harsh on your skin and after being exposed to the sun for a long period of time your skin starts to get red and hurt. If it's really bad you could blister and skin could start to peel."_

 _"Sounds...unpleasant."_

 _"It is. So, I'm guessing you never had one before." Hikaru shook his head again. "But what about your parents or Kaoru. They should have had a sunburn before at least."_

 _"Maybe they have before, I'm not sure. Usually, when they go out they have something that covers them. The only one that's not covered is my dad, but only when he's giving speeches. So maybe he's had one before, but I never noticed." He looked over at Haruhi with a small smile. "Have you ever had one before?"_

 _"Well, obviously." She chuckled. "I'm probably going to get one by the end of this date because it's so hot."_

 _"Well, if you're hot I can help with that." He said as a mischievous smirk spread across his face._

 _Before Haruhi could even react, Hikaru grabbed her by wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close to his body. Haruhi glared up at him and put her hands on his chest to push away from him._

 _"Hikaru, I told you to…" Suddenly Haruhi felt a refreshing wave of coldness surround her that came from her boyfriend's body. Soon she stopped fighting against his grip and she let him hold her close to him. "This, actually feels quite nice."_

 _His smirk widened as he laid his chin on her head. "I told you I could help."_

 _Haruhi felt her eyelids start to grow heavy after a few minutes of him holding her. It might've been_ _the sudden change of temperature, along with her full stomach, and before she knew it she fell asleep as she listened to the soft beat of her boyfriend's heart._

 _When she woke up she glanced up at the sky to see what time of the day it was and was relieved to see that the sun has barely moved from its position in the sky before she fell asleep. She let out a soft sigh before laying her head back on her boyfriend's arm that she was using as a pillow. She really did want to go back to_ _sleep, but decided that it would be the best option to stay awake. She looked up and saw that Hikaru had fallen asleep as well. She smiled as she looked at his sleeping face. He looked so sweet and innocent, almost as if he didn't have a care in the world. She has seen him asleep before when he had fallen asleep on her couch while waiting for her to finish up her chores and because he looked so peaceful she didn't want to wake up. She felt the same right now but she knew that she would have to wake him up soon so they can start to head back to the bakery._

 _She moved his dark locks away from his eyes, taking a small portion into her hand. Her smile fell as she stared at the dark color. Hikaru still didn't know he was a cursed twin. Haruhi did sometimes want to tell him the truth about his situation but was afraid of how he might act. His parents kept this huge secret from him for all his life and to suddenly find out that when he was born he was supposed to be killed by the same guards that protect him._

 _She also worried about how their relationship will be like in the future. She was afraid that if his parents found out he left the castle that they might break them up. Hikaru has mentioned that his father would disapprove of their relationship because she was_ _lower class, but he didn't care and would fight for their relationship the best he could. Even stating that he would still sneak out of the castle to have secret meet ups with her until Kaoru grew control of the kingdom and they could get married._

 _Haruhi was a bit shocked by the sudden mention of marriage but didn't hate the idea. She actually_ _liked it. It would obviously be far in the future but it was still a nice thought and caused a small smile to return to her face._

 _She let go of his hair and looked back at his sleeping face, a little sad that she had to wake him up now. Even though she didn't like bring attention to them in public, she did enjoy being close to her boyfriend and could stay like this for hours, but sadly they had to get going._

 _However, as Haruhi was about to wake him up she heard laughter from two people coming from the distance. Haruhi looked towards the direction of the laughter and saw two castle guards riding their horses through the forest, close to where she and Hikaru were. She looked back at her sleeping boyfriend and saw that his face was fully exposed. The guards would definitely recognize him when they passed by._

 _She tried grabbing the front of his hood and moved it back down so it would cover his face again, but it barely budged since his head was already laying on a portion of his hood, making it difficult to move. Haruhi looked back towards the guards and saw that they were only about a couple hundred feet away. She had to think quick because in just a minute the guards would walk by them._

 _Without even thinking, Haruhi pushed Hikaru onto his back, causing him to wake up, and got on top of him so she was sitting on his stomach._

 _"Haruhi, what are you-"_

 _She cut him off by grabbing his hood and covered his face with it. "Shh, guards are riding through the forest and are going to pass by us." She whispered. "I don't want them to see your face."_

 _"Haruhi," he said in a muffled voice, "by the way you're positioned and forcing the hood over my face it might look like to the guards that you're trying to kill me."_

 _He was right, by the way she was positioned on him it looked like she was trying to strangle him. If the guards saw her doing this they would surely think she was attempting to murder someone, and if they found out that it was Hikaru it would be a thousand times worse. As another plan popped into Haruhi's head she lifted the hood so she was the only one to see his face, revealing the smirk he had on his lips, but soon his expression turned shocked as she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and engulfed his lips into a deep kiss. He grunted in surprise by the sudden action, but soon to begin to kiss back as he cupped her face with his hands._

 _She didn't have enough time to think up of a proper plan, she knew that the guards were most likely going to notice them because they were literally making out in the open, but all they would do is most likely glare at them and make snide comments because showing too much affection in public was looked down upon, but with the hood covering the top portion of his face and her kissing him would make it almost impossible for them to realize it was Hikaru. She was also covering his clothes with her body so they wouldn't be able to see his royal attire._

 _As Haruhi heard the guards finally pass them and start to hear the footsteps of the horses grow quiet in the distance she separated from Hikaru. She looked towards the direction of the guards and let out a short sigh of relief to see that they were far away from them._

 _"Good, they're gone. I was worried that-"_

 _She was then cut off by her boyfriend's arms pulling her close to him so she was laying on his chest as he captured her lips in a kiss again. She soon began kissing him back as she cupped his face, just like he did to her before, and threw out all the reasons why she hated kissing out in the open. They've kissed quite a lot throughout their ten month relationship, but_ _every time they kissed it always felt better than before and full of love._

 _She felt his lips form into a smirk and before she could even question what he was planning to do she felt her boyfriend's hands go under her shirt and trail up her back. She gasped when she felt him unhook her bra and separated from him before sitting up and covering her chest._

 _"Hikaru!" She hissed as she hit his arm. "I told you to stop doing that!" He just replied with a smug smirk which Haruhi glared at. "I swear to God, ever since that day when you had to change me because of the frozen lake you just love to unhook my bra."_

 _"This is only my third time doing it," he said as Haruhi rehooked her bra, "and you're the one who technically started this whole thing by kissing me."_

 _She rolled her eyes. "I only kissed you to keep the guards from seeing your face. Don't get a big head."_

 _"Oh, then what about the kiss that just happened right now?" He purred. "You seemed to like that a lot."_

 _Haruhi blushed and glared at him before slapping his arm again, which he just responded by laughing._

 _"God, I hate you."_

 _"Sure you do." He sniggered._

 _Haruhi huffed and got off of him before standing up. "We have to get going. I don't want your parents to find out you're gone."_

 _"Can't we just stay out a little longer?" Hikaru begged. "I really don't want to go back home. It's suffocating there. Especially since my parents now all of a sudden want to spend time with me."_

 _"I would love to let the date go on longer, but I really don't want to risk anything Hikaru," she gave him small smile, "and once you parents get busy again we'll have a date that lasts longer. Our one year anniversary is coming up so we'll definitely spend a lot of time together on that day, so it'll make up on all the lost time we couldn't see each other."_

 _"Well, I guess that could make up for ending the date early." He grumbled, which caused Haruhi's smiled to widened._

 _"Come on, let's go pouty." She said as she walked over to the picnic basket to start to clean up._

 _He sat up and glared at her back._ _"I'm not pouting. I'm just upset that I have to leave my girlfriend earlier than usual because of my parents."_

 _"That's called pouting Hikaru. Now come over and help me pack up everything."_

 _Hikaru just grumbled under his breath as he got up and began helping Haruhi pack up. Even though she wasn't showing it, she was just as upset as he was. Since they've been only able to see each other once a week for only a few hours, and even though today they had spent a long time together, it still didn't feel like enough. They finished packing up and rode back to the bakery. Hikaru helped put everything back, so he could stall from going back home, but once they were done Haruhi literally had to kick him out so he could go back home. However, he made their goodbye long as well. He kept her locked in an embrace while giving her multiple kisses on the lips and cheek. Haruhi gave in for about a minute but then told him to go, which he finally obeyed to. With one final kiss goodbye on the lips, Hikaru mounted onto Zorro's back and went home as Haruhi watched him, playing with_ _the red_ _heart-shaped sapphire from the necklace he gave her for her birthday, watching as he disappeared as he turned a corner and into the woods._

* * *

"Haruhi?" Tamaki's voice called out from the other room, breaking her out reverie.

"Yeah?"

"I think that we might have a problem."

Haruhi forwarded her eyebrows in confusion and wiped the flour off of her hands before leaving the kitchen, immediately seeing her group of friends and father looking outside the window.

"What's going on?" Haruhi asked.

"There's a man." Tamaki stated, not taking his eyes off the person. "He's outside yelling and a crowd is forming around him." He finally looked at Haruhi with a worried expression. "He's trying to tell everyone about Hikaru's existence."


	18. Chapter 18

**Haruhi**

Haruhi's eyes immediately widened in horror at what Tamaki just told her. Someone was outside yelling at the townsfolk and trying to convince them about Hikaru's existence? But how does that guy even know about Hikaru in the first place?

Haruhi ran out of the bakery, ignoring her friends calling out for her to wait and once she got closer to the crowd she saw a middle-aged, heavy set, balding man standing on a table with the crowd growing around him. How could someone as average as him know of Hikaru's existence? Except for her and her friends, no one knew of Hikaru's existence outside the castle, so there was no way he could've found out about him, unless someone who worked at the castle told him about Hikaru.

"You folks may not believe me right now, but I promise I'm telling the truth." The man projected to the crowd. "Your precious king and queen have been hiding away the elder twin of their son Kaoru in the castle for almost seventeen years so no one would know he was alive."

"And why should we believe you?" Haruhi yelled out angrily without thinking.

The man looked over towards Haruhi and her eyes widened when she saw a huge burn mark on the left side of his face that that started from where his eyebrow use to be and stopped at the center of his cheek, covering his whole eye in one big red mark.

 _'Did Hikaru have something to do with that? But he would never hurt someone unless he felt like he was in danger, so there was no way he could've done that.'_

"Because young lady," the man said as he took a step closer towards Haruhi's direction, "I use to be a guard at the castle."

Haruhi just watched in horror as the man pulled out an oval-shaped metal plaque from his pocket and showed it to her and the crowd. The plaque had a Gemini symbol on it. He was one of the guards that killed cursed twins. Haruhi looked back at the man's face and she had to hold in her surprised gasp when she recognized him. He was a lot more fit and younger back then, but he was the guard that killed the cursed twin in front of his mother when Haruhi was little. But if he was a former guard, why was he trying to convince everyone about Hikaru existence?

"I was a castle guard for over two decades," the man said to the crowd, "I was there when the twins were born. They broke their own law so they could keep their eldest twin son alive because they couldn't bear to kill him, but they continued to kill everyone else's, even mine." The crowd gasped in shock as he continued. "The day after the princes were born my wife gave birth to twin girls before passing away from an illness she's been trying to fight off her entire pregnancy, but sadly the illness took her right after giving birth. I thought because they let their own twin son live they would let mine daughter live as well, but I was mistaken." His eyes were glassy from unshed tears as he remembered his daughter, which Haruhi didn't know if he was acting or trying to persuade the crowd to believe him. "They forcibly took my daughter away from me and held me back as they killed her right in front of me in cold blood, but they continue to let their own fucking son live." He hissed out harshly, clenching his fists in anger.

"You have no proof that the king and queen have twin sons." Tamaki's voice called out from behind Haruhi, causing her to turn around to see her group of friends standing behind her. "How do we know you're not trying to spread out lies?"

The crowd began murmuring to themselves rather if the man was trustworthy or just crazy, which was causing the man to get visibly upset.

"You have no right to believe me," the man responded coldly, "but I and God know the truth." He looked back out at everyone in the crowd. "Do you want to know why they keep their precious son hidden? It's because they know that if everyone knew about his existence they will riot against him and the royal family."

"Is it true about the cursed twins having powers?" A girl in the crowd asked.

"Yes," the man answered, "and the legend is also true about them being violent." He pointed to the burn mark on his face before continuing. "That brat burned me with a flame he conjured up when we were trying to restrain him and it left me with this scar. He was forced to apologize to me afterward but I could tell that little shit didn't mean it as he had an evil glint in his eye."

No, Haruhi refused to believe that Hikaru would do anything like that. He was not a violent or evil person and only would use his against people when he needed to protect himself or his friends, but other than that he was a sweet and carrying person. Even though he did have a temper Haruhi knew the guy must have been lying unless Hikaru felt threatened by the way he was being restrained. If Hikaru was the cause of the scar it was because he was scared and threatened by them, they was no other reason.

Before the man could say anything else, the sound of a horse neighing caught Haruhi's attention. The guard that Haruhi recognized as Daichi galloped through the crowd on his palace horse and stopped in front of the man, separating him from the crowd.

The man smirked up at Daichi as he scowled down at him. "I still see that you're the king and queen's puppet Daichi."

"And I still see that you're still causing trouble Jurou." Dachi looked out towards the crowd. "Don't listen to this man. Yes, he was a guard before but he was let go because his mental health was getting so bad that he was a threat to the royal family, especially Prince Kaoru since this man believes he saw two of him. Now that you know this man is crazy you may go back to your normal activities."

The crowd remain where they were and just whispered to each other about who they should believe. Jurou did have evidence that he was a guard and Daichi did just confirm it, but they still didn't know if Jurou was just crazy or Daichi was just trying to cover up about Kaoru having a twin.

"Now!" Daichi ordered, which finally the villagers listened and the crowd began to disperse. As the crowd grew smaller he spotted Haruhi and her friends in the crowd and pointed to her. "Except you, I need to talk to you when I'm finished here."

 _'Me? Why does he want to talk to me? Does it have something to do with Hikaru?'_

Daichi faced away from her and back towards Jurou. Glowering at him as the man still had the smirk on his face.

"What are you doing here Jurou? You know you were banished from the kingdom after the shit you tried to do."

"Yes I know, but if you remember what's written in the law? Banishment only lasts for a few years. Barely anyone knows about it since it was written from the olden times to get soldiers back for war purposes, but it's still written in the law today so I'm legally allowed to be here."

"Once the king and queen find out that you're back and trying to spread rumors about Prince Hikaru's existence they'll just banish you again."

"Daichi, have you forgotten?" Jurou said in a teasing, his smirk growing. "They need a reason for banishing me. They can't use the old reason on why I was banished because my banishment time is over, and I'm allowed to speak my mind about how I feel about the king and queen freely without consequences if I don't threaten them. Wow, you must be getting really old my friend."

Daichi growled as he moved closer to Jurou in a threatening way. "Fine," he hissed, "but if you try to pull another stunt like what you did four years ago I'll kill you with my own bare hands, you got that?" Jurou just snickered as Daichi moved away from him and made his way over to Haruhi and her friends. He stared down at her with no emotion on his friend, but Haruhi could still tell that he was angry from his eyes.

"You probably know why I'm here."

"Is it about Hikaru?" Haruhi asked, which Daichi nodded to.

"The king has requested me to bring you to the castle. He wants to discuss your and Prince Hikaru's situation."

Haruhi felt herself start to grow nervous, she didn't know why the king would want to talk to her about her Hikaru's relationship. Was he going to banish her and her father for knowing about Hikaru? They barely had enough money to repair the bakery that the king's guards destroyed, so she definitely didn't have enough money to move out into another kingdom and by a house.

Tamaki must have sensed her nerves and placed a hand on her shoulder as he stood right next to her. "If she goes to the castle then I'm going with her."

"Tamaki you don't have to do that. I'll be fine."

"Please, just let me come with you." He begged. "I want to make sure you're going to be safe, and I want to make sure Hikaru is doing fine as well."

"Tamaki…"

"I don't care who comes along," Daichi said as he was starting to grow impatient, "we just need to get going now."

"Please," Tamaki begged again, "I just want to make sure that you two will be alright."

It wasn't that she didn't want him to go with her, she was terrified of facing the royal family, but she was also afraid that since they only summoned her they might be angered that Tamaki tagged along. He was part of the upper class in Avalon unlike Haruhi, so maybe they won't be as hard on her with a person higher in power than herself with her, even though she highly doubted it, but it was worth a try.

"Fine," she sighed out, "you can come."

Tamaki smiled brightly. "Thank you."

Haruhi faced over towards Daichi, which told him that they were ready to go. Daichi nodded and tightened his hold on the reins of hos horse.

"Alright, follow me."

* * *

 **Hikaru**

I woke up to the sound of the door being unlocked. I slowly opened my eyes and looked over towards the door as it opened, glaring at my dad and a guard as they entered the room, stopping at the foot of my bed.

"Get up," father ordered in a stern voice as he crossed his arm over his chest, "your peasant _'girlfriend'_ is coming over so you can officially break up you little relationship."

I continued to glare at as I refused to listen to his order. Even if I did give in and obeyed his him I felt too exhausted to even get up. Dad looked over towards the guard that accompanied him and tilted his head over towards me, which the guard nodded to. The guard walked up to me on the side of the bed I was facing and grabbed my shoulders before forcing me to sit up. He then took off the cloth from around my mouth and slid it down so it hung around my neck. Dad turned to leave, expecting to follow him, but I stopped him before he could even take a step.

"What...What are you going to do with her?" I asked in a weak voice, causing dad to turn back around. "Are you...going to banish her like you did to Naomi..?"

"I have no reason to," father answered, bringing me some relief, "all I want you to do is break up with her. You're the one who broke the rules and dragged her into this. Once you two break up she'll just go back to living her normal life."

I just looked away from him sadly and stared out the window through the see-through curtains. I was glad that dad wasn't going to banish Haruhi, she did nothing wrong, but she was still technically being punished for being my girlfriend. I was being forced to break up with her because I broke the rules and left the castle grounds, and also because she was a peasant. I didn't regret leaving, but I wish Haruhi wasn't wrapped up in all this.

Father sighed. "Hikaru, I know you're upset about punishing you. Being locked up in here for all your life can be suffocating, I get that. But you got to understand that we're only looking out for your own safety."

My jaw tensed up as I began to go angry and faced back at him with a disdainful glare. "Are you really keeping me locked in here because of my safety or are you just hiding the fact that you have a son who's a cursed twin?"

The color immediately drained from my father's face. I have never seen him make an expression like the one on his face now as if he just saw a ghost. He usually always had a straight or stern expression, he never liked to show that much emotion so he wouldn't worry Kaoru or me whenever something bad happened. The only other time I've seen him like this was that night four years ago and he didn't change back to his normal self for a few weeks, but now he was staring at me with almost the same expression like he had that night.

"Ho-How do you know about the cursed twin?" Then suddenly as if a switch was flipped he turned furious. "Did that peasant girl tell you about this?!"

"No, it wasn't her." I answered. "She didn't tell me because she wanted to protect me from knowing what actually happened to cursed twins," my glare hardened at him, "and if it wasn't the fact that I was your son you would have had me killed."

"Hikaru, you don't understand."

"Understand what?!" I hissed angrily. "That even though you spared me and know that I'm nothing like what the legend said but you still kill the elder twins?!"

My dad's glare soon matched mine in a heated battle. "You want to know why you're not like the cursed twins in the past? It's because we made sure you wouldn't turn into one of them."

My glare fell and was replaced with a confused expression. "What do you mean?"

Dad let out a sigh, I knew he didn't want to tell me but there was no point in lying to me when I already knew the truth about the curse. "It's because we trained you to be good."

"...Trained?"

"Yes," Father answered, "when you were born we had the Nekozawa family make items that possessed black magic so we could keep you under control." He motioned his hand over towards the cuffs around my hands. "If we didn't have any of these items we wouldn't have been able to control any of the outbursts you had. Your mother and I did talk about when you and Kaoru were first born that if you did grow up without being any trouble because of the curse we might've stopped the executions if need be, but even though you weren't nearly as difficult as we thought you were going to be, you were still a handful. Now imagine all the families who wouldn't be able to get their hands on these items that possessed black magic, they wouldn't be able to control their cursed twin and they might end up like Kuro if they're not trained to be good. I'm trying to protect our Kingdom Hikaru. I'm sorry that you're stuck inside this castle, but it's the only way to keep you safe."

I just stared at him in complete shock, there could be no way that they trained me to be good. I will admit that I had a pretty bad temper when I was younger and because I wasn't fully in control of my powers they would sometimes accidentally come out when I had a fit, but I was nothing like Kuro. I never wanted to hurt anyone and when I did it was by accident and I felt extremely guilty afterwards. Also, all cursed twins being evil didn't make any sense. Before Kuro and his army, there was no history of a cursed twin killing anyone, Nekozawa would have told me that for sure.

"I disagree." I said, causing my dad to cock an eyebrow at me.

"With what?"

"I disagree that you trained me to be good." I answered as I glared back at him. "You trained me to control my powers, but I've always been good. If I really was born evil like Kuro I would've remained that way. Just like everyone else in the kingdom we're allowed to choose if we want to be good or evil not the curse, and like most the villagers we chose to be good, but because of one bad cursed twin we're all deemed evil. Which is hardly fair."

"You may disagree with me and the law Hikaru, but I've been alive a lot longer than you. I've seen what these untrained twins can do and I don't want to risk having the kingdom destroyed again because you feel bad for the people in the same situation as yours."

"Dad-"

"I'm not going to discuss this any further." He said before motioning for the guard to put the cloth back over my mouth so I couldn't talk back. "That peasant girl is going to be here any minute. The guards will bring you out once your mother and I talk to her for a few minutes, then you'll break up your little _'romance'_ then you two can go your separate ways."

I just continued to glare at him as he turned and left the room, letting the guard unlock my chains from the foot of my bed and tried to get me out of the bed.

"Let's go your majesty." The guard ordered.

I didn't bother moving, I didn't have the energy to. I was lucky that I was able to go through the whole conversation without passing out, so there was no way that I could get up and walk all the way down to the throne room.

Since I wouldn't move the guard began to grow impatient and tugged my chains forcefully, causing me to fall out of the bed and land onto the hard stone floor with a loud thud. The guards weren't normally allowed to treat me so harshly, but if we didn't listen to our father's orders to go someplace the guards could sometimes do anything to force us to go, along as it didn't severely hurt us. I let out a groan as I felt the dull pain began to spread through my body where I fell and then felt the guard grab me from under my arms and help me stand up. At first, my legs were too weak to stand just as if I was a baby deer trying to walk for the first time. After a few minutes I finally able to stand properly on my own the guard let go of me and lightly tugged on the chains, telling me to start walking. I slowly followed him out of the room, not having the energy to fight him, and let him lead me down to the throne room.

* * *

 **Kaoru**

Kaoru sat quietly on his father's throne as he nervously waited for the guards to tell them that Haruhi has arrived. He knew that the break up was going to destroy his brother. Kaoru hasn't seen his brother in a few days, but whenever Hikaru was forced into those cuffs he was always so drained and lifeless afterwards for a few days until he fully got his strength back. Though adding him having to forcefully break up with his girlfriend would only make him worse.

"He's coming down." Kaoru's father said as he entered the room.

"How is he?" The queen asked in concern.

"He's fine." The king answered as he walked up to her and Kaoru. "He's weak from the black magic but other than that he's doing fine. I also need to talk to you afterwards about something."

"What is it?"

The king looked over at Kaoru briefly before facing back to his wife and leaned over to whisper in her ear. Kaoru couldn't make out what he told her but by the sudden change of her expression told him it wasn't good.

"How did he find out?"

The king shrugged. "I don't know. He said it wasn't the peasant girl who told him but I think he's just covering it up to protect her."

"Protect her from what?" Kaoru asked.

"Nothing that concerns you, not right now anyway."

"Uh dad…" Kaoru's voice grew weak, afraid that what he was going to say might upset his father. "Don't you think that you've punished Hikaru enough? After he's free from the cuffs he'll be locked up in our room for a while. I think Haruhi will get the hint that their relationship is over even without…"

His father scowled at him, causing Kaoru to grow silent as he didn't want to make his father any angrier.

"I already had an argument with your with your brother Kaoru. I really don't want to…"

He suddenly stopped mid-sentence and his scowl immediately fell when he noticed something that seemed out of the ordinary. Kaoru just sat there confused by his father's sudden change in demeanor and how his hand slowly went to Kaoru's hair, grabbing a small lock of his bangs. Soon his father's expression turned worried and he looked over towards his wife, who's expression matched his once she saw it as well.

"What?" Kaoru asked, starting to get a little scared by the way his parents were acting.

"When did you get this?" The king asked, lifting the dark lock from Kaoru's bangs so Kaoru could see it.

Kaoru shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. The princess from Aztecia noticed it when we were out there a few months ago, but I think it's been here for a while. Why does it matter?"

"Hide it." His father ordered. "We can't let anyone outside the castle see it."

"Huh, why?"

"I'll explain later, just hide it!"

Kaoru just remained confused, but let his father hide the dark lock deep within his bangs so he wouldn't anger him any further.

 _'Why was it so important that I hide the dark lock of my hair? It didn't mean anything, but why were mom and dad freaking out about it so much? Could it have to do with-'_

"Your Majesties." A guard called out, breaking Kaoru out of his thought.

The king removed his hands from his son's hair and looked over towards the guard. "Is she here?"

The guard nodded. "Yes, Daichi is with her and her friend outside the main door as we speak."

"Let them in."

* * *

 **Hey guys, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. I'm sorry if there was a bit of a wait, I've been really busy these past few weeks with finals and my dog being really sick and I'm scared we might have to put him down, but hopefully, it won't come to that. I also started a new story called Secret Rendezvous, which I hope you will check out. Please Favorite, Follow, and Review. Until Next time.-HH1957**


	19. Chapter 19

**Haruhi**

Haruhi looked at the exterior of the castle in awe as she rode up with Daichi to the castle's main door, with Tamaki trailing behind them on his own horse. Four brood, round towers sat at each corner of the huge castle and were connected by high, sturdy walls that were made of dark windows scattered across the walls in an asymmetric pattern, along with holes that held archers and artilleries for protection.

A vast gate with giant metals doors opened, letting them into the castle grounds. Everything was so beautiful, almost as if Haruhi just stepped into a fairy tale that she's read when she was a child. She now fully understood why Hikaru first, unintentionally, insulted her home. She knew the castle was huge as it sat on a hill that looked over her village, but she didn't know it was this gigantic, or glamorous. As they made it to the front door, Daichi hopped off his horse before helping Haruhi down then handing off his and Tamaki's horses to a castle servant.

"Word of advice," Daichi said as he faced Haruhi and Tamaki, "don't anger the queen. If she sees that you are actually as great of a person as Prince Hikaru and Prince Kaoru say you are, Hikaru might be able to convince her to let your relationship continue in the future. She's the only one that'll be able to change the king's mind."

"So wait, I'm a bit confused here." Tamaki said, drawing in Daichi's attention. "If you're on the king's side in this ordeal, why are you giving Haruhi advice that may help her and Hikaru's relationship?"

"I'm not taking the king's side. I'm only following orders." He answered, crossing his arms over his chest. "Like I told Ms. Fujioka, I'm not totally against their relationship. I want whatever is best for the Princes and to keep them safe. I know he hates being locked up here but it's for his safety, but with you," he looked back over towards Haruhi, "ever since I found out about your guys' relationship I began to notice how Hikaru has been acting differently this past year. He seemed happier than I've seen him in such a long time. Since he was a child. "A faint smile touched his lips. "So, even though I believe he shouldn't have left the castle due to his safety, I am almost glad that he met you, but," her smile fell and was replaced with a rueful expression, "I am worried that he'll be far worse than he was before and start resenting everyone besides Prince Kaoru in the castle as he grows depressed."

"Is there anything that you could help convince the queen and king to let Haruhi and Hikaru stay together?"

"I doubt it. The issue here is that Hikaru has to remain hidden in the castle for his safety. They might think I'm trying to go behind their backs and that would not end well for me, so I'd like to stay out of it as much as I can. But," his smile returned and he gave Haruhi a wink, "I might be able to give them subtle hints to try and help."

Then as if the guards inside knew that the conversation has ended, the main doors of the castle opened, revealing the beautiful interior of the castle. Guards greeted Daichi as he led the two guests inside and towards what Haruhi assumed was the thorn room. Everything amazed Haruhi down from the marble flooring to the paintings by the most famous artist on the upper walls, to the stone ceiling that seemed to be carved into a gorgeous design until it reached a dome in the center of the room at the end of the long hallway, where Haruhi could see the royal family in front of their thrones at the end of the red carpet, conversating among themselves as if they haven't noticed them walking up. She could feel herself start to grow extremely nervous. She has never been in a situation where she had to speak to anyone of such high ranking, much less the king and queen. If she said the wrong thing she could be imprisoned or banished, or much worse, even killed if they really wanted her gone. She knew that it would most likely not happen, but there was always a slight possibility.

Dozens of servants and maids paused what they were doing to stare at the duo. Some seeming to be nervous for them while others seemed to glare at her as if she was a pest that had suddenly wondered in, which didn't help Haruhi's nerves at all.

"Hey," Tamaki placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, causing her to look over at him and saw his reassuring smile on his face, "Everything will go over smoothly. I promise."

Haruhi nodded, but even though she was now glad that she brought Tamaki along with her and was helping her calm down a little, but it still wasn't enough to help her.

"Your Majesties," Daichi said as they walked into the throne room, "I have brought the girl as you requested.

"Thank you, Daichi." The king said as he turned over to Haruhi, which only caused her to grow even more nervous.

She saw his eyes look her up and down as if she was judging her, disgusted at what he saw. She felt like now she was a pest as she was being stared down at the king. She looked over at Tamaki who seemed to be calm. His eyes didn't even look like they were nervous.

'How the hell is he staying so calm?'

"So," the king started, grabbing Haruhi's attention again, "You're the peasant girl that's been having a relationship with one of my sons?"

"Yes, your majesty." Haruhi answered as confidently as she could, trying not to let her nerves get to her.

The king began to slowly stroll around her as if he was trying to find every detail that was wrong about her. It probably didn't help her that she was dressed pretty poorly today. She didn't plan on going anywhere today so she dressed in clothes that she would usually just bake in. If she knew that she was going to meet the royal family today she would've obviously dressed a lot nicer, either in a few of the outfits some of her friends bought her to be more _"girly"_ or the ones that Hikaru have gifted her when he saw that most of her clothes were worn out.

The king came back around in front of her, the stern look remaining on his face. "You're probably curious why I summoned you here?" He said, which Haruhi just responded with a small nod. "As you could tell, it has come to our attention that you're in a _'relationship'_ with my son Hikaru, and have been for almost a year. It also seemed you know of his powers, am I correct?"

"Yes, your majesty." Haruhi answered.

"I don't know if Hikaru has told you or not, but I don't agree with blue bloods and peasants being together. It taints the royal bloodline and I will not have my family's blood mixed with one of a peasant's." Haruhi just remained silent, afraid that if she speaks that the king would get angry if she did without him asking her to. She could that he didn't necessarily like her since she knew of their secret son's existence and powers but also dating him.

"I usually banish people who know of Hikaru's existence." The king continued causing Haruhi to gulp. "However, I won't with you."

Haruhi looked up at him surprised. "Really?"

The king nodded. "Yes, Hikaru was the one who broke the rules, he just dragged you along with him." His glare turned from serious to angry, which caused Haruhi to grow nervous again. "But I do find it suspicious how my son randomly found out that he was a cursed twin while he's been out and around with you." He hissed out harshly. Haruhi only forwarded her eyebrows in confusion as the king continued. "Would you care to explain why that is Ms. Fujioka?"

"Your majesty I-"

"Wait, what's a cursed twin?" Kaoru spoke up as he walked away from his father's throne to be closer to them. "What are you guys talking about?"

The king just ignored his son's question, acting as if he didn't hear it as he continued to scowl down at Haruhi. As the king was preparing to continue the conversation before Kaoru interrupted, a guard appeared from the left hall, advertising the king's attention from Haruhi.

"Your majesty," the guard said as he stopped at the end of the hall. The king seemed to understand what the guard was going to say and motioned an order with his head for them to come.

"Bring him here."

The guard nodded and went back into the hall. A few seconds later the sound of clinking metal instantly grabbed Haruhi's attention. As she turned back to look down the hall she saw the guard re-emerge from the hall again and her stomach dropped.

Trailing behind him was a weak, exhausted-looking Hikaru, who looked as if he could pass out at any second. He was being led by chains that were connected to cuffs around this hands and had a cloth tied around his mouth so he couldn't talk. He hasn't changed out of the clothes since the last time she has seemed him, which knowing him he wouldn't ever wear the same outfit two days in a row. His dark hair was disheveled and sticking up mostly on one side. His already pale skin was a shade or two lighter, which caused the dark circles under his eyes to be more prominent. He looked horrible, and it broke Haruhi's heart to see him like that.

As their eyes met Hikaru's immediately widened. He mumbled something under the cloth that Haruhi couldn't make out. He seemed like he wanted to try and run over to her, but the guard held him back before he could take one step.

"What did you do to him?" Haruhi asked horrified, but by how calm Hikaru's parents look, this must've not been something new.

"As you know, Hikaru is a cursed twin. His powers are extremely dangerous if they are used against us. He has a habit of unleashing his powers at people when he's upset, so we have to use black magic to keep his powers at bay so he won't hurt anyone. We are doing this for all of our protection, even his."

"But Hikaru wouldn't hurt anyone unless he feels threatened. He-"

"Don't pretend that you know more about my own son than I do!" The king spat, silencing Haruhi. "I've been with him since the moment he was born. You've haven't even known him for a year! You've never seen him anywhere near to what I am talking about! The fight at the bakery doesn't even come close to anything to what has happened here," his glare then hardened again as if she horribly offended him and walked back in front of her, "and don't you ever address my son in an informal way again. Not even the high power families in Avalon are allowed to, let alone a mere peasant."

Hikaru mumbled out a beg to his father that sounded like him telling him to stop and tried to run over to Haruhi again but the guard just pulled back the chains again. He tried to fight back, but within a matter of seconds gave up because of how weak he was. Haruhi looked at the cuffs around Hikaru's hands and saw the crescent moon carved into the metal with the glowing purple stone in the center. The cuffs must've been possessed with black magic, no wonder he was so weak. It pained her to see him that way and she could tell it pained Kaoru as well, but she knew he couldn't do anything to help his brother. If he could he would've done it in a heartbeat.

"Now," the kind spoke up again, breaking Haruhi out of her thought, "since Hikaru is finally down we can end this relationship over with and we can go our separate ways." He looked over at his eldest son, who glared at him. "Remove the cloth."

The guard nodded and walked over to Hikaru before reaching over to pull down the cloth over his mouth, but Hikaru jerked away from him and mumbled something under the line of 'Don't touch me!' The guard looked over towards the king as if he was asking for permission, to which the king nodded to. The next thing Haruhi knew the guard tugged Hikaru's chains to pull him towards him before locking him in a headlock.

Haruhi immediately grew furious by how her boyfriend was being manhandled by a guard and his family just allowing it to happen. She looked over to Kaoru, only to see that he just stood back and painfully watched the whole ordeal happen and turned away once their eyes met Kaoru shamefully turned his head away.

The guard slid down the cloth from Hikaru's mouth and forced him to look over at his father.

"You don't have to make this any harder than it has to be Hikaru. Just end this relationship and we can all go back to our normal lives." He motioned his Haruhi over towards Haruhi. "Now end it."

Hikaru's expression immediately fell as he looked over at Haruhi. She gave him a sad smile and nodded, telling him to listen to his father. It hurt her that they had to end their relationship but she knew that she couldn't live with herself if she was the reason why Hikaru would be miserable at home because of her own selfish desires. Hikaru saddened even more and looked away from her, down at the floor. He seemed to be trying to figure out what to say and after a few seconds his expression grew dark and he looked up at his father with a cold glare.

"No." He hissed.

"What was that?" The king growled, obviously not happy with his son not obeying his orders.

"No," Hikaru repeated, "you may be the king and my father, but you can't force me to stop loving somebody because you disagree with her social class. She's made me the happiest I've ever been in years because she showed me what the real world is and even loves me even though I'm a cursed twin. You may not like her, but I love her." His glare hardened at his father, a burning fire in his eyes. "So fuck off!"

The room immediately grew quiet, too in shock that someone actually cursed at the king, let alone his own son. It took about a minute for the king to fully get out of a state of shock and it was soon replaced with anger.

He glared over at Haruhi. "What the hell did you teach my son?! He has never acted like this before now-"

"Don't blame her!" Hikaru growled. "She has nothing to do with the way I'm acting, this is all me. If you want to be angry at someone get angry with yourselves! You're the ones who kept me hidden in this castle for sixteen fucking years because you didn't want the kingdom to know that you broke the rules and kept your cursed son instead of killing him-"

"Enough!" The king barked. He then looked back over at the guard, who seemed to immediately understand what the king wanted him to do and pulled the cloth back over Hikaru's mouth to silence him. "I will not have my own son talk to me in such profanity as if he was a mere peasant." The king then turned back to Haruhi. "Since my son won't do it then I will. Your guy's relationship or whatever the hell it was is over," he took a step closer to Haruhi as his glare hardened, "and if I ever hear one word from the villagers about Hikaru, I won't think twice about throwing you and your family out of Avalon."

Hikaru began yelling at his father, but it was muffled. However, something strange began to happen to him that Haruhi has never seen before...His eyes were glowing emerald green.

It seemed that it caused him to have a burst of energy as he began tugging his against his chains as he took a few steps towards them, dragging the guard along with him. The guard dug his heels into the ground to try and get Hikaru to stop, but Hikaru was too strong and the marble was too slick.

Hikaru seemed to get annoyed of the guard's resistance and tugged his chains again harshly, causing the guard to fall to the ground with a loud thud and let go of the chains.

"Take him back to the room now!" The king ordered to the other guards, but Haruhi could hear the slight fear in his voice even though his expression was still stern it was clearly a facade. Was he really afraid of his own son?

A few more guards grabbed onto Hikaru, restraining him the best they could as he thrashed around to get out of their grip, but he soon grew tired by the black magic that possessed the cuffs. He collapsed in the guards' arms, having no energy to stand as they began leading him away. He looked at Haruhi sadly for a brief moment before looking away, ashamed that she saw him like that before disappearing down the hall.

"Shit." The king let out a shaky breath before collapsing onto his throne, visibly shaken.

"Wha...What was that?" Tamaki finally spoke up, breaking the awkward silence.

"As you know he's a cursed twin." The king sighed out as he rubbed his temples. "It's part of the curse." He put his hand down before staring at Tamaki and Haruhi sadly. "I may seem like a terrible father to you, but I'm doing all this out of love. You may think that you know all about Hikaru's situation and the curse because you may have read it from some folk tales, but that isn't even half of it. Like I told Hikaru not too long ago, that if we raising him wasn't difficult we would've stopped…" his eyes traveled over to Kaoru, who just looked completely lost by the whole conversation, "you know what I am talking about."

"It wasn't that Hikaru was a horrible kid." The queen added as she made her way over to her husband, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "He had his moments like every child, but he was almost the exact opposite from what we expected...but some days, he would become out of control, as if he was a completely different person." The queen grew morose. "His temper would become explosive and he would use his powers against others because he couldn't control them that well."

"But what does that have to do with this eyes glowing?" Haruhi asked.

She still refused to believe what the king and queen were telling her. They may have been Hikaru's parents but from what they were telling her seemed nothing like the Hikaru she knew. Yes, he did have a temper at times, but no matter how angry he got he never used his powers to hurt someone unless they posed a threat. There were some times where small bursts of his powers would happen if he felt a strong emotion, like if he got embarrassed or nervous he might accidentally freeze something or if he got angry he might burn whatever his hands touched if he wasn't wearing his gloves, but it was not as bad as what his parents were saying.

She was, however, curious about why his eyes suddenly glew green. It obviously had something to do with the curse, but she has never heard anything from the folk tale about it. Maybe it was in one of Nekozawa's books?

"It's a defense mechanism." The king answered, which just seemed to confuse the two town folk more.

"What do you mean?" Tamaki asked.

"It's to ward off any threats that they feel is towards them. Like how a dog grows or a snake hisses, but sometimes it's a warning to us when they're angry that they have lost control." His expression turned back to stern, but Haruhi could still see that he was still shaken up. "What you saw today was more of a warning for us to leave the girl alone. His powers were kept at bay with the cuffs, but if he wasn't wearing them he would've probably attacked us."

Haruhi grew angry again and was about to protest that Hikaru wouldn't have hurt anyone when the sound of Daichi clearing his throat drew in her attention. She looked over at him and once their eyes met he shook his head. He was right, if Haruhi wanted to stay on the good side of the queen she shouldn't cause a scene by arguing, so she bit her tongue.

"I think it's time for you two to leave." The king said as he stood up from his throne. "Daichi will walk you back to your village." He gave them a stern glare. "I'm trusting you two to keep the existence of Hikaru a secret. If I hear one word of there being a twin of Kaoru, I swear to God you won't be allowed to step one foot in this kingdom again for the rest of your lives." His glare turned towards Tamaki. "No matter how high up your family is. You understand?"

Tamaki gulped as he and Haruhi nodded. "Good." He turned towards Daichi. "Please escort them out."

Daichi gave the king an obedient nod before turning towards the duo. "I'm trusting you two to go and wait for me outside. I have to talk to the royal family about...him."

The last words of Daichi's sentence came out almost as they were venom, and Haruhi immediately knew who he was talking about.

"Alright," Haruhi said, "we'll be right outside."

* * *

 **Kaoru**

Daichi watched as Tamaki and Haruhi watched down the hall until they reached the main doors of the castle, and once the doors closed as they left he faced towards the royal family again.

"What's the matter Daichi?" The king asked, noticing his angry expression.

"Your Majesties, I hate to bring more stress in your lives but there is something that you should know." His grey eyes met the king's, who just seemed confused. "He's back."

The king remained confused for a few seconds until it seemed to finally click and his expression grew terrified, which Kaoru had rarely even seen his dad.

"Wh-What? How is this possible?! I banished him from the kingdom after what he did!"

"He found a loophole in the banishment law because of how Avalon needed soldiers during the war and the law hasn't been changed yet. So, technically he allowed back in, even though it's against all of our wishes."

"And I can't banish him again because he is declared innocent!" The king growled as he clenched his fists in fury.

"Wait...you don't mean?" The queen looked over at Daichi nervously. "It can't be…"

"Shit!" The king roared as he bangs his fist on his throne.

"Wait, what's going on?" Kaoru asked, a bit terrified by how everyone was acting. The king looked over at Kaoru as if he was contemplating whether to tell him or not. He then turned towards his wife and Daichi to see if they would give him an answer on what to do, which Daichi nodded, and he faced his son again.

Jurou is back, but don't worry." The king's furious glare returned. "He won't be able to hurt you and Hikaru ever again. I swear on my life."

* * *

 **Hey guys, I'm really sorry for the two-month wait. Do I have excuses, yes, yes I do...ish. Mostly school and trying to find a job, but** **I will try to update quicker since I'm back in the mojo of school...kinda**

 **Also, thank you so much for all the recent reviews, favorites, and follows from the last few updates. To be honest I was a little upset that his story didn't get that much recognition at first because I really love writing this story. Then suddenly, but slowly, a lot more people start reading it and loving it (even some of my favorite authors' XD) and it makes me even more motivated to write stories. So thank you all, I love you. :)**

 **Please Favorite, Follow, and Review. Until next time.-HH1957**


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